After months of anticipation, the highest pitching prospect Bubba ChandlerThe debut didn’t disappoint – although it might look completely different from what most fans expected. Chandler abandons four closed frames to ease good pitching prospects Braxton Ashcraftmaking money on his first Major League Baseball appearance. Despite its debut on the pen, Chandler will be seen as a rotation, General Manager Ben Cherington told reporters this weekend (video link to the Pittsburgh Post’s Colin Beazley).
“He can still get started,” Cherington said of Chandler. “But it’s important to pitch in the major leagues. We want him to get that experience, get feedback, and start where there is enough situation to start early enough, it’s a real experience to inform him about going into the offseason in 2026.”
Cherington went on to point out that there was no guarantee of the start, and manager Don Kelly “will direct” Chandler’s decision from appearance to appearance. Chandler has no plans to start directly on the ground and will be 23 in a few weeks. Pittsburgh has Johan Oviedo,,,,, Mitch KellerAshcraft, Mike Burrows and Paul Skynis Line up for the next five games. Logically, it can be expected that Chandler can play Ashcraft again on Wednesday, as both are on the same timeline.
But he has deployed that Chandler should reach a new career high in pitching situations. Last year, he threw 119 2/3 frames, up to 104 innings this season, with more than a month left on the regular season calendar. He will obviously spin in 2026, so even at the 2024 mark, his season workload exceeded his season as he watched his first year spin work, which would be beneficial.
Chandler’s Major League Baseball Ready isn’t the only long-term issue that the Pirates are focusing on in the final months of the season. Beazley wrote that some of Cherington’s comments were highlighted in the full column – readers are encouraged to check on this and more pirate issues – Beazley wrote that Pittsburgh’s GM feels infielder Jared Triolo He has begun to prove his ability to handle shortstops at least part-time in his profession.
Triolo, 27, spent most of his major league career between second and third base games, but since being recalled to major after the trade deadline, Bucs have given him 15 games. Although Cherington stressed that this doesn’t mean that Triolo will open at shortstop next year, Bucs also wanted to evaluate how much of his options there. Konnor GriffinAccording to Baseball America and MLB.com, the first prospect of all MLB is seen as a long-term answer, but only 20 years old, until recently promoted to Double-A, where he has played only six games so far.
Cherington suggested earlier this month that Bucs would seek infield help during the offseason and doubled the idea at his latest media conference. Short-term additions to shortstops are wise. Any work Triolo does now will certainly strengthen his candidacy for the bench position, but it is worth noting that he does more than instilling pirate brass and having confidence in his own gloves. Dating back to his August 1 recall, Triolo cut .324/.418/.500 (158 WRC+) in the 80-dish look.
Many of the products are due to the swelling of the ball that he cannot maintain, but Triolo also chases the plate less and less, walks more frequently, and contacts the ball more frequently in the strike zone. It’s a small sample, but shows some positive progress, and if Triolo can keep it for a month to finish the season, it’s nice that he’s playing a steady role in 2026. He continues to play a stable role in 2026. His overall speed is still .213/.308/.343, but he beats the strong defenders at good speeds with both speed and speed. If the bat can rise slightly below average, you can use solid utility options.
Of course, capturing characters has always been a problem in Pittsburgh. Several attempts to attract high-end young players to claim this long-term arena have not been eliminated. Endy RodriguezThe latest elbow surgery – the second elbow surgery since October 2023 – further questioned his ultimate claim to the role’s candidacy. Cherginton said the organization still regards Rodriguez as a catcher after the recent surgery (linked via MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf).
Cherington called Rodriguez, 25, (May 26 next year) “we believe he can be good at defending and hitting left-handed” and touted the value of having left-handed and right-handed hit options behind the plate. GM admits that Rodriguez’s long-term defensive prospect is something Bucs visits again as they continue to tinker, but Rodriguez’s idea as a catcher is not the Bucs’ “want to give up easily.”
Rodriguez hasn’t hit a limited major league appearance yet, cutting only 0.210/.276/.311 in 261 sets, dating back to his 2023 MLB debut. Rodriguez almost missed the 2024 season to recover from Tommy John’s surgery, but returned to the 2022 season for minors and hit both in Triple-A games in 2023 before being summoned to the major leagues. He is expected to be ready for training next spring, but it is not a lockdown for the roster next year.
Rodriguez and Triolo have a minor league choice left after this season, so next year’s training camp is not a staunch member for either player, but in the mid-20s and a year of choice, they both need to build some staying power some time in the next calendar year.
