The Pirates MUST Fix This Before the Trade Deadline

The Pirates' top priority this deadline should be the bullpen.

There have been a lot of questions, especially at the back end, and they need arms.

It needs to be trades, not just like a Brandon Eisert pickup, they need to bring in established major league veterans.

to shore up this really ugly bullpen so far.

They don't need any help on offense, and whenever I'm looking at places to add to this team, the rotation might be their second biggest priority.

Good morning, and welcome to OffBeat, here on North Shore Nine, presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf, and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

Braxton Ashcraft had a bad night in the Bronx.

It happens to the best of us.

Eight earned runs allowed, a new career high.

Pirates were able to pull up ahead for a brief period of time after falling behind 4-0.

Ashcraft surrendered the lead again.

Just a bad night for him.

Stuff happens.

I think the rain delay, or the rain out in Cleveland, and him needing to throw a bullpen then, and then have his start push back after the All-Star game.

It seemed like a little bit of a recipe for disaster, because whenever he has struggled, it's usually been his routine being thrown off.

So whether it was that, or him just not having his stuff for the night, he has definitely earned a couple mulligans this year.

But there's also that lingering, nagging feeling also with Ashcraft, of this guy who has thrown as many innings this year as he's ever thrown in his career.

And that's, what if he's hitting a wall?

Now, I don't think he is right now.

I'm not overreacting to one start, but it's something that's going to be in the back of a lot of people's minds this year.

Especially in the second half of the season, whenever he's eclipsed those innings highs, and whenever he's thrown more pitches than he's ever thrown before.

How is the body going to hold up?

And it's not just Ashcraft.

I look at this rotation, and I see a lot of question marks.

Starting with Tuesday starter Mitch Keller, who has not had a good year, and has really struggled against left-handed pitching.

Now, how is he going to get those left-handed hitters out?

He needs to figure it out.

We've talked about this a lot.

I think it really rides on getting that sinker back on track.

We've seen him throw it more in the previous couple starts.

That's probably a good sign.

But, just in general, it's been a bad year.

ERA is over 5.

How much can the Pirates really rely on him?

Because he's had some short outings of late.

He's allowed a lot of runs of late.

If this team is pushing for the postseason, they can't roll someone who has an ERA among the worst in baseball.

Bubba Chandler.

I think he has definitely improved as the year has gone on.

He's gotten his mechanics in a better spot.

I think he's on the right path.

But he's also a rookie.

He's also had some downs this year.

He's also going to be throwing a new high in innings.

There are a lot of question marks there.

Ashcraft.

A lot of question marks there also.

It's a rotation that you look at Jared Jones and it's like, yeah, he could be a big part of it.

But he's only capped at six innings.

Is it just Paul Skenes that you feel really good about the quality and the quantity of innings you're going to get down the stretch?

Like Jared Jones.

I think he's back on track.

needed a couple starts in the major leagues.

Get that environment back after, the elbow surgery and being away from a mound for over a year.

I think he's back in that groove right now.

But is he going to go the whole year?

How many innings are the Pirates going to allow him to throw?

How many innings is Ashcraft going to throw?

How many innings is Chandler going to throw?

Can Mitch Keller get back on track and get that ERA under five?

So I look at this all and it's like, maybe you add a starter.

I don't think it should be a top priority.

They're not going to sell the farm to get Skubal or anything like that.

But do you pick up a back-end starter?

Back-end lefty?

We all know this rotation has always had a veteran lefty.

This year has been the exception.

Do you target someone like that?

Do you dare try a reclamation project in season?

Because I like Jeffrey Springs of the Athletics as a reclamation candidate.

I know the stats are really ugly, but if you look at the peripherals, it's like the same amount of hard contact and whiffs as Foster Griffin in Washington.

Who is going to be one of the top trade targets, this deadline.

It's like, I think that's Timu, Foster Griffin.

I wouldn't mind throwing a number 28 prospect and stash him in my bullpen back end of the starting rotation.

Because right now there are five guys.

And four of them have question marks surrounding them.

And that's assuming they all stay healthy.

Because if someone goes down, I don't know who fills that spot.

The most obvious candidate is Mitch, or Carmen Mlodzinski, excuse me.

And yeah, even this setup that he has right now, where after a game he talks to Bill Murphy and they map out a road to recovery and him getting back to the mound.

Ben Cherington brought up, like, yeah, it also puts him in position if he was to go back to the rotation.

Now, at the same time, on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan on Sunday, Ben Cherington brought up that the role that Carmen Mlodzinski is pitching in now is the one where he can make the best impact, give the team the best chance to win.

And in theory, I agree with that.

I wrote for Book Rule Bucks how he's not being deployed in a lot of high leverage spots.

And the smoke when you got him, mindset that they have with his availability, makes him hard to put in those types of spots.

But I agree with that.

He is probably still best off as a reliever.

He can make the biggest impact there.

Werber Dotel.

Three scoreless innings on Monday.

Really kept the Pirates in this game.

They didn't end up winning, but, they had a pulse the entire way through because of what Wilber Dotel was able to do.

Do you move him to the rotation if someone gets hurt?

In either case, you are losing one of your top two relief pitchers.

And I look at what's going on in AAA, whether it's Hunter Bachar or Thomas Harrington or Antwone Kelly, and, like, I don't want them to make sense.

If this rotation starts right now, if this rotation stays healthy, there are still a lot of question marks, and there's no guarantee that all five are going to be healthy all the way through.

That just creates a need, in my opinion.

We're going to take a quick break, throw it over to Cody.

We'll be right back.

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Now, if the Pirates do end up picking up a starter, there's the question of where do you put him?

Because Braxton Ashcraft is staying in the rotation.

He's not going to the bullpen.

And I don't think Bubba Chandler is going to AAA.

I don't think Jared Jones is going to AAA or the bullpen.

It might be Keller that you look at.

Is he, how sure is his rotation spot right now?

Obviously, he's been here a long time.

He has the veteran leadership angle.

He has the largest contract for a pitcher in franchise history.

these are all factors that go into, you keep him in the rotation.

So maybe you do stash someone in AAA or in the majors, put him in the bullpen for a while.

But this bullpen definitely is flexible at the moment.

It could be molded any which way.

Really, the only thing of this bullpen that looks like it's pretty good is the long relief.

Whenever you have Mlodzinski, whenever you have Dotel, you could potentially add another guy in there.

Maybe you need another guy in there.

If Mlodzinski's not going to be available the majority of the days.

I think Keller is still in the rotation.

I don't think they want to just salary dump him, or anything like that.

It's still a question of, is this your best possible starting five?

We've talked a lot about how this is a homegrown rotation.

And that is a feather in their cap.

Not a lot of teams can produce a rotation of just guys that came up through the system, that have that camaraderie, who have grown and are all part of this mold.

That's commendable.

But at the same time, whenever you don't have a lefty, whenever you don't really have a true veteran outside of Keller, there are going to be storm clouds.

I don't think Braxton Ashcraft's start on Monday was anything more than just he didn't have it.

If you make 30 starts in the year, the idiom is five days, everything's going right.

Five days, nothing really goes right.

It's what you do with those other 20 that determine what type of pitcher you are.

And so I'm willing to call this one of those five where he doesn't have anything.

But as he now is at as many innings as he has ever thrown at a, as a pro, the quantity is going to be in question.

Jared Jones's quantity is going to be in question.

Bubba Chandler's quantity is going to be in questions.

Mitch Keller's quality is going to be in question.

And even Paul Skenes, look, he's having a good year.

I've dedicated a lot of time talking about like, oh, what's wrong with Paul Skenes?

He's still having a pretty good year.

All things considered.

He just hasn't been the Cy Young.

But even that, like that's not the same level as what we've been accustomed to, what the pirates are probably counting on.

And he is also in 2025.

He had a new career high in innings.

There are a lot of parts of this rotation where I could see the wheels falling off.

And not a lot of starting pitching depth at the moment.

And the starting pitching depth they do have weakens an already ugly, bad bullpen.

They could add a starting pitcher.

And it wouldn't cost a lot in terms of dollars and cents.

It wouldn't cost a lot in terms of prospects if they're willing to settle on the C tier arms that are out there.

And I don't think they need a big stud here.

I'm more concerned about the depth.

And how it's going to impact the bullpen if someone gets hurt.

Because this is a bullpen that has no wiggle room at the moment.

If you want to improve that unit, I think a part of that is making sure your rotation options are rock solid.

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