Pittsburgh Pirates: 3 Young Relievers Who Could Put the Bullpen Over the Top in 2024

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have laid the foundation for a strong bullpen in 2024 and beyond, but these three potential relievers could boost the bullpen to an elite level

The Pittsburgh Pirates have laid the foundation for a Shark Tank 2.0. There are a lot of youngsters who are projected to be in the Bucs’ bullpen; however, some could boost their pen from being a good bullpen to an elite group like what we saw in the early-mid-2010s. These three youngsters could lead the youth movement in the pen in 2024 and give it the extra oomph behind David Bednar.

Kyle Nicolas

I’ve written plenty of articles about Kyle Nicolas, but there’s just so much to like about his late-season debut. Nicolas was originally a second-round pick by the Miami Marlins in 2020 but was included in the Jacob Stallings deal. Now that the Fish non-tendered Stallings, the Pirates let go of Zach Thompson last off-season, and Connor Scott has not developed as hoped, Nicolas remains the last player from either side of the deal with any potential. However, there is a lot of potential.

Nicolas’ first few games were mixed. The right-hander stumbled out of the gate, allowing six earned runs and making just one out. But after that, Nicolas settled down and pitched five more innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out seven batters with two free passes allowed.

Of course, that is a small sample size, though Nicolas did look much better at Triple-A once he got acclimated with his new role as a relief pitcher. In his final 15 frames, Nicolas had a 1.20 ERA, struck out 41.3% of batters faced, and allowed just one home run for an HR/9 rate of 0.6. He did have a 10.3% walk rate, which was above the league average in the International League, and overall, he still had a 4.0 K:BB ratio.

Then you take a look at Nicolas’s stuff, and you see why I like talking about him. His fastball sat 96.8 MPH with 2409 RPM. Not only did he have high-end spin, but he used nearly all of it to his advantage with a 97.3% active spin rate. Nicolas’ fastball was most comparable to Gerrit Cole's, and that’s not an over-exaggeration. Cole sat 96.7 MPH with 2412 RPM and a 94% active spin rate. Nicolas’s fastball is arguably even nastier than Cole’s as the former’s four-seamer has better ride and more horizontal movement.

His primary breaking pitch is a slider, which averaged out at 89.5 MPH with nearly 2500 RPM of spin and football spiral spin. It’s a nasty pitch that pairs well with his fastball. He only threw his curveball a total of eight times, and while it was by far his least-used offering, batters swung and missed at it every time with a 100% whiff rate on eight curves.

Carmen Mlodzinski

The Pirates got a look at what Carmen Mlodzinski could do in the second half of the 2023 season. A former first-round competitive balance pick, Mlodzinski secured himself a high-leverage role going into 2024. He’ll at least open the year as a 7th-inning guy, but he could find himself in the 8th inning more often than Colin Holderman.

In 36 big league innings, Mlodzinski had a 2.25 ERA, 4.03 FIP, and 1.28 WHIP. He had a 22.4% strikeout rate, along with an 11.4% walk rate. However, he was decent at limiting home runs with a 0.75 HR/9. Now those numbers aren’t all that impressive looking, aside from the ERA. But his stuff could definitely help him going forward.

Mlodzinski threw four pitches at least 10% of the time. Three of them held opponents to a WOA below .300, including his four-seam fastball, sweeper, and change-up. Of the three pitches, his change-up has the most potential, given it had the highest whiff rate at 23.1%, the lowest batting average and SLG% against at .190 and .283, respectively, and the lowest hard hit rate at 23.5%. However, both his four-seam fastball and cutter averaged over 1.5 runs of value per 100 pitches.

Mlodzinski had +0.72 WPA in less than 50 innings, stemming from his ability to pitch well in close games. 31 of his innings came in the 7th inning or later, where he owned a 2.32 ERA, .645 opponent OPS, and 30:15 K:BB ratio. He also only allowed six extra-base hits.

Braxton Ashcraft

Braxton Ashcraft could take a similar route as Carmen Mlodzinski did. While he was primarily a starting pitcher for most of his minor league career, Ashcraft could move to the bullpen this upcoming season. If he does, look for Ashcraft to take his talents to the next level in 2024.

Ashcraft pitched 52.2 innings last season in Bradenton through Altoona, working to a 2.39 ERA, 2.85 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. He struck out 29.6% of batters faced with a walk rate of just 5.2% and a HR/9 of 0.68. The right-hander was one of the best pitchers in minor league baseball. Among pitchers with at least 12 games started, he had the 9th best ERA, 5th best FIP, 7th best K:BB ratio, 20th lowest walk rate, and 16th best xFIP.

After barely pitching in any of the last three seasons, Ashcraft returned, throwing in the mid-to-upper-90s with his fastball. The right-hander also throws a curveball and slider and the occasional changeup. Like many players taken by Neal Huntington, Ashcraft has shown a ton of athleticism on the mound, which has helped his command develop well. While he throws hard, he doesn’t need a high-effort delivery to crank the velocity up.

Even though Ashcraft made 19 starts, none of his outings lasted more than four innings. Sure, while I’d love to see Ashcraft be a starting pitcher, he hasn't been asked to take on a starting pitcher workload since 2021, and that was before Tommy John surgery. The velocity gains in shorter outings may not hold if he is asked to go 5-7 innings at a time.

Right now, the safe bet is Ashcraft ending up in the bullpen, however, his stuff would definitely play as a reliever. Ashcraft was added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Because of that, the fact he’s going into his age-24 campaign, he may move to the bullpen, and of how well he did in 2023, I could see the Pirates fast-tracking him to their pen.

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