The Pirates are red hot and the story around Pittsburgh. People are raising cones, Bob Nutting is signing them and PennDOT is watching theirs closely that they don’t start disappearing. Here’s your NS9 Bullpen Breakdown on this Monday morning…
The back end of the bullpen got a nice break in the Pirates 8-2 drubbing of the Orioles yesterday as only Mason Montgomery and Jose Urquidy pitched in the blowout. The trio of Dennis Santana, Isaac Mattson and Gregory Soto should be fresh and ready to go for the Padres series. Add Justin Lawrence and his sweeper in there as he hasn’t pitched since Wednesday. And if we need a bulk reliever or bridge to the back end of the pen tonight, Yohan Ramirez should be ready to go with just 19 pitches in the past five days. We also finally got to see Urquidy for a second appearance on the season and he dazzled with three strikeouts and just one hit allowed in 2.0 scoreless innings. Bulk reliever…closer in extras…mop up duty…I’m still trying to figure out his role, but whatever role it is, he hasn’t given up an earned run through two outings this season. Overall, the pen is in good shape and has been producing basically since after Opening Day.
Tonight’s starter is Bubba Chandler as he makes his second start of 2026 and just the sixth start of his young career and only the third start at PNC Park. One thing that had me thinking watching Braxton Ashcraft mow down the Orioles on Easter was these pitchers are so young and they’re performing now. This season is going to be so important for all them to get the best experience they could possibly get at the MLB level and they’re doing it and so far producing as well. After a full season of starting for Ashcraft and Bubba, they’re going to be that much better. They’ll be stretched out more to handle a 160-180 IP workload, they’ll learn how to adjust on the fly and be a better pitcher moving forward. And while they’re learning this, it’s possible that this team could still compete. And it has to be so beneficial for them to watch Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller go out and pitch every fifth day. Again, it’s hard not to be super excited to see the ceiling of this rotation.
Bubba is currently +2200 for NL Rookie of the Year odds. We’ll see how his start versus the Padres goes tonight, I’m looking for him to try and one up Ashcraft. Chandler only went 4.1 innings in his first start, didn’t give up any hits but struggled with the walks. I want to see him go at least five and hopefully get the control zoned in tonight.
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