We are nearly halfway through the season and the Pirates bullpen have been an abject failure. I don’t think anyone was predicting the pen to be great and they went into spring training with it likely being the weak point of the team and are they ever. Here’s the harsh reality of the bullpen numbers:

Ranked 18th in fWAR with 1.4
Ranked 20th in ERA with a 4.46
Ranked 19th in WPA with 0.07
Tied for 3rd most blown saves in MLB with 16 (according to screwball.com)

Keep in mind these numbers are worse than they look because they include the couple starts where Mlodzinski had an opener and his numbers basically as the starter in those games count here in these bullpen numbers per FanGraphs. The numbers do match up with the eye test—they’ve been awful to date. And it’s not really surprising either. There were red flags about this bullpen coming into the season. For one, the pen was mainly unchanged from last year. There were only two notable pickups this offseason as Ben Cherington went out and signed Gregory Soto to $7.75M for one year and then they acquired Mason Montgomery in the Brandon Lowe deal. 

Besides that it was status quo for the bullpen. For better or for worse the Pirates were set to rely on Dennis Santana, Isaac Mattson, Justin Lawrence, Hunter Barco, Yohan Ramirez along with Soto and Montgomery and long reliever Jose Urquidy who beat out Mike Clevinger and Chris Devenski for the final spot. It was a group that had some potential, but overall didn’t envoke much confidence. And so far through 78 games, we’ve seen why there was cause for concern throughout spring training. 

A lot of it relied on Santana and Mattson defying the odds once again. Santana, a former multiple DFA victim, started off the season with seven scoreless outings before falling apart in May to the point where he basically went from the closer role to mopup duty in about a month. 

Then there’s Mattson, who was playing with the Washington Wild Things just four years ago. He burst onto the scene with the Pirates last year and posted a 2.45 ERA in 47.2 innings. It was a cool story, but how sustainable was it? Turns out not very sustainable as he was hit hard early and often in this season before being optioned to Triple-A in mid-May. He’s been recalled this month, but relying on him for anything more than a mid-innings reliever would be foolish. 

And there’s Justin Lawrence. He was DFA’d from Colorado and the Pirates picked him up hoping that move out of Coors would do wonders. And it worked for a little while last season as he impressed with that sweeper to a 0.51 ERA in 17.2 innings before suffering an injury and missing the rest of the season. He returned this season and never find the brief success of last season again. He pitched to a 5.32 ERA in 22.0 innings before being dealt to Derek Shelton’s Twins on May 17 for cash considerations (he’s recently been DFA’d by the Twins after an 18.00 ERA in six outings). 

Three of your mainstays from last season that were supposed to be the back end of the bullpen ended up in mopup duty, sent to Triple-A and traded. That was major production from 2025 that basically was fools gold and turned to salt early on this season. 

Then there’s Soto who had a 4.18 ERA, but underlying and strikeout numbers were strong. He was stellar to start the year and was thrust into the closer role due to Santana and Mattson’s struggles. He currently has a 3.34 ERA with 11 saves. But he’s also had some major blowups: see June 3 where he didn’t record an out and gave up three runs in an 11-9 loss at Houston and he’s had a 6.75 ERA since May 12 after starting the season with a 1.33 ERA. Soto is a perfect setup man and someone you can play the matchups with left handed batters, but he’s not really the ideal closer. He’s been this pen’s best pitcher and pretty much one of the lone bright spots, but he hasn’t been lights out by any means. 

Montgomery’s been fine enough as the only lefty in the pen. His ERA has ballooned lately to a 4.71 ERA, but he has played a variety of roles from being an opener four times this season to a mid relief arm. The bottom line here is Soto and Montgomery haven’t been the problems in this bullpen, but they’ve been relied on for a lot more production than they should have been. Evan Sisk has been a nice find after he came over from the Royals in last year’s deadline deal for Bailey Falter. Sisk has a 1.85 ERA in 34.0 innings and is one of the few bright spots in this rotation. He’s had his blowups too and allowing inherited runners to score, but to date he’s far from the problem. But this team needs more, specifically quality right-handed arms.

That brings us to Carmen Mlodzinski. He made the rotation out of spring training, but it was always likely he would go to the bullpen once Jared Jones was back and healthy from UCL surgery. Mlod did excel in the bullpen role in the second half of 2025 and he looked like he could be a true weapon for the team out of the pen. He pitched well out of the rotation until Jones returned, but never really went deep into games and struggled the third time through the order again. Jones returned, the team announced Mlod would go to the pen then he did a dejected interview then told the team he wasn’t ready to pitch, was put on the restricted list and took 10 days off. He finally pitched out of the pen on June 4 and is basically Jared Jones piggybacker now. 

It’s one thing to have a poor bullpen by having a collection of below average pitchers, but when you’re also not utilizing your best pitchers in the most optimized roles, you’re hurting the team and the pen as well. I’m not sure what’s going on between Carmen and the Pirates whether they gave into him about sticking to a starter-like schedule and scheduling the games he’ll throw every 5 days, but it’s an illogical decision and hurting the team in my opinion. Mlodzinski should be your Swiss Army knife in your bullpen. He can pitch in a variety of roles: long reliever to bridge between starter and back end of pen or in high leverage roles for an inning or two. And he can spot start if needed due to injuries or what not. And he could be elite in those roles too. 

It’s a weird and illogical decision, but when your pen already is struggling and you barely have any arms you can trust, not pitching Mlod in high leverage roles is mind boggling and unacceptable. He finally pitched out of the pen for two innings in his last appearance on Saturday in a 2-1 game after Paul Skenes exited so I’m hoping Don Kelly and company have seen the light and will pitch him in more frequent outings to help the bullpen out with one of your better arms. The bullpen severely needs it.

So what else can you do for this pen? I don’t think many answers are internally as the slew of arms at Triple-A Indy like Barco, Mike Clevinger, Antwone Kelly, Noah Davis, Tom Harrington and others haven’t pitched very well. No one in that group has really taken the reins and taken advantage of an opportunity in the MLB pen. This group has been a major disappointment as the Pirates banked on relying on some of that pitching depth to produce in the Majors this season. Even Wilber Dotel, who had a 5.32 ERA in Triple-A, was rushed to the Majors to pitch out of the pen and he was stellar through his first seven appearances until the past homestand when he had his blow up and served up 10 earned runs in two outings. One of those outings, he gave up six earned runs without recording an out turning a 2-2 game against the Dodgers into a laugher. Overall, this bullpen has been a major weak link for this team who has an above average starting rotation and a top five offense. We are a long way from the days of the Shark Tank from 2013-2015.

The Pirates did trade Joey Bart for Braves reliever Hunter Stratton last week, but Stratton was just DFA’d by Atlanta and sent to Triple-A for now. I think he’ll join the team very soon and could help, but who knows what he’ll do once he’s here…he had a 4.38 ERA in the minors this season. Stratton isn’t a long-term answer this season. This team needs legit MLB relief arms.

There are no easy answers here. The fix is going to have to come from outside this organization.

Enter Ben Cherington. It’s June 22 and I’m not sure when the trade market will begin to heat up (probably not for at least a couple weeks) but he needs to be ready to pounce. The Pirates need to add arguably at least two relievers but probably three if they want to turn this thing around and go for a playoff spot. Not only do you need to acquire 2-3 relievers before the trade deadline, but one of them has to be a bonafide closer type akin to Aroldis Chapman. I’m not saying it has to be Chapman, I’m not certain he’ll even be available even though the Red Sox season is in the tank but getting a shutdown closer type who’s done it before needs to be a priority. And then from there go add two more solid right-handed options for the pen—Antonio Senzatela, Sam Bachman, Lake Bachar have been some names thrown out.

I believe this is the only way to somewhat fix this bullpen in 2026. Tweak Mlodzinski’s role to allow him to pitch every couple days and when the situation calls for it, pick up 2-3 arms before the trade deadline and it could be enough to find a competent bullpen before it’s too late. The team has been able to scuffle and hang around .500 or just over despite this bullpen blowing up time and time again. They’re just 1.5 games out of a wildcard spot currently. Can they hang around for another 2-3 weeks before this trade market picks up? We’ll know shortly as the team has 19 games before the All-Star break with series against the Reds, Brewers, Phillies and Braves coming up.