Should the Pirates have limited Jared Jones against the Mets?

Every time that Jared Jones takes the mound is a reason for excitement for fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has looked every bit of what anyone could have hoped for so far in his Big League career. The former 2nd round pick in 2020 already looks to be the current ace of the team.

Still, he is just 22 years of age. He has only thrown 315 total innings in the Minor Leagues and he has never gone over 130 innings in a season. So are there concerns about him being able to keep up with what he is doing over a larger sample size? The belief early on is that he is more than capable of doing so. Jones really looks like the best pitching prospect the Pirates have had at the Major League level in years.

So last night when the Pirates decided to pull Jones after 5 innings it really was not that surprising. He had pitched really well and 5 innings for a starter is a good day's work. However, when looking at his pitch count, questions started to emerge.

Jones had only thrown 59 total pitches, along with 50 of them being strikes. He was being prominently efficient and looked like he was fine on the mound. So what gives? Well, this is what I was referring to earlier.

The Pirates are a small market team and they will continue to operate as one. Now this specifically has nothing to do with money but how they will operate. The team sees the lack of innings Jones has compiled, and they know pushing him in starts right now may cut out his work at the end of the season.

Fans of the Pirates want to see them playing good, competitive Baseball, but there is always the other side of the argument.

Sometimes it is not about how many innings a pitcher can throw, but how many innings of a 162-game season can they throw. The team wants Jared Jones to be in the rotation all year, so they are going to find places to cut corners. Unfortunately, this did not work out for the team. After 5 scoreless frames, seven strikeouts, and only allowing 1 hit, Jones was pulled. The Bucs would end up losing the game by a score of 3-1. What do you think of the decision? Be sure to comment below.