10:34am: Mlodzinski will begin the season in the Pirates’ rotation, Shelton announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Stumpf).
10:25am: Left-handed reliever Ryan Borucki, who’s in camp with the Pirates on a minor league deal, is expected to make the roster, reports Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Outfielder DJ Stewart, another Pirates non-roster invitee, is not expected to make the team and has an opt-out clause in his contract today, Stumpf adds. Meanwhile, Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that pitching prospect Thomas Harrington is expected to open the season in the minors, though he’s yet to be reassigned to minor league camp and is still slated to pitch today’s game.
Borucki, 31 next week, had a terrific 2023 season in Pittsburgh (2.45 ERA in 40 1/3 innings) but struggled through an injury-wrecked 2024 campaign. He signed a $1.6MM deal to avoid arbitration last winter and started strong but landed on the injured list in April due to a triceps issue. He ended up missing five months and was jumped for seven runs in just 7 2/3 innings upon returning.
This spring, Borucki has looked far more like the 2023 version of himself. He’s tossed 8 2/3 frames and held opponents to one run on five hits and five walks with a dozen punchouts. That 13.9% walk rate is obviously discouraging, but Borucki has typically shown strong command, and the 33.3% strikeout rate he’s notched thus far carries some weight as well.
Borucki will be one of at least three lefties in Derek Shelton’s bullpen. Pittsburgh signed Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza to one-year deals worth $3MM and $1.15MM, respectively, in free agency this winter. They’re both set. Southpaw Joey Wentz is still in camp as well. He’s out of minor league options. Wentz pitched well after being acquired from the Tigers late last season and has had a big spring, yielding a pair of runs on nine hits with a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio in 8 2/3 innings.
Stewart, 31, has had a decent showing this spring but seems ticketed to be granted his release. The lefty-swinging former first-rounder (Orioles, 2015) slashed .250/.348/.450 in 46 plate appearances but needed a .391 average on balls in play to get there. Stewart hit only one home run during camp and went down on strikes in 34.8% of his plate appearances.
Stewart had a big year with the Mets as recently as 2023, when he slashed .244/.333/.506 with 11 homers in only 185 trips to the plate. However, that’s an outlier relative to the rest of his career, and he followed it up with a .177/.325/.297 output and just five homers in a very similarly sized sample (194 plate appearances) in 2024.
Assuming he indeed opts out, Stewart can seek new opportunities elsewhere. He’ll be an option for clubs looking for some left-handed pop in the outfield corners or at first base (though his experience there is much, much more limited). Stewart strikes out too often but draws plenty of walks and has shown 25- to 30-homer power. Dating back to 2020, he’s batting .205/.329/.396 with 35 long balls, a 13.5% walk rate and a 28.7% strikeout rate in 812 plate appearances.
Harrington, 23, is one of the Pirates’ top minor league arms. A potential path to a rotation spot opened up last week when Jared Jones’ start was skipped due to an ominous elbow issue. It’s still not clear how things will play out with Jones, who at last update was seeking a second opinion. Harrington’s apparent omission from the roster could be a sign that there was good news with regard to Jones or that the Bucs will simply open the season with four starters and use the early off days to skip the fifth spot in the rotation. Pittsburgh could also give the rotation nod to righty Carmen Mlodzinski, who’s been stretching out this spring and remains in camp. Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Andrew Heaney and Bailey Falter are in the top four spots. Top prospect Bubba Chandler was already reassigned to minor league camp a couple weeks back.
The Pirates will need to open a 40-man roster spot for Borucki. He’ll earn the same $1.15MM as Mayza once his contract is formally selected. The Bucs don’t have a clear 60-day IL candidate, barring bad news on Jones. First baseman Spencer Horwitz is on the mend from wrist surgery, but that early-February procedure came with a recovery timetable of six to eight weeks, so there’s a decent chance he won’t be out long enough to require such a lengthy IL stay.
Cardboard cutout of Kevin Young at 1B opening day?
Endy Rodriguez might be the Opening Day 1B.
I’d be on board with that. I want to see that kid play more than twice a week as a backup catcher.
Might as well
Hope he can hit, I don’t think he can
Endy? Are you basing that on a brief callup 2 years ago? He’s hit pretty much everywhere without the obvious major flaws of Henry Davis.
Historically, first baseman are power hitters, not that Stewart fit that mold, but until Horowitz returns, they will need a first baseman
My guess, the worst General Manager and his worst counterpart, manager Derek Shelton, will use light hitting Triolo at first base
I was disappointed but not surprised that they sent Gorski to minor league camp
It’s going to be another wasteful season by the cheapest owner in baseball
Wouldn’t be surprised if you are right about Triolo. love his defense but team needs offense from somewhere.
Indications that the franchise is or close to losing money after the CBA. Wouldn’t surprise me that your dream of Bob selling his stake happens with the next CBA.
Source: cbs sports
Decent move. The Pirates know their starting pitchers are shaky—Jared Jones might be hurt—so they’re keeping Borucki to lock down close games and using another guy, Mlodzinski, to fill in as a starter instead of rushing Harrington up.
Mlodzinski should be interesting. He’s got the stuff to be a starter, but he’s a keeper regardless of how he’s used.
Was drafted as a starter and used as a started in the minors until brought up for the pen when needed a couple of seasons ago. Looking foprward to she how he pitches in the rotation.
The Pirates will have a record of 83 – 79 this year.
The team is losing money and the owner is NOT making a profit, paying himself a salary, or taking a dividend.
dkpittsburghsports.com/team/site-stuff/feed?page=0…
Nutting made $69 million in profit last year according to a recent article. The team meets its payroll through ticket sales, concessions, and merch alone. The rest, including revenue sharing and television money, is total profit which Nutting pockets. This will become an issue for Nutting when the negotiations begin with the players’ union on a new labor contract.
dkpittsburghsports.com/team/site-stuff/feed?page=0…
si.com/mlb/pirates/news/new-report-raises-question…
Spoiler alert: SI nor DK Sports knows the financial facts and figures of Pirates. They have a good idea on how much revenue they take in, and how much they spend on payroll, the draft, and IFA signings, but all of the other expenses related to owning an MLB team, they’re only guessing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was somewhere between $69 million in profit and losing money.
They will win less games than that. Vegas has over/ under at 75.
@Richard, thank you for the article link as it was informative. I am not familiar with dkpittsburghsports. How creditable are they?
I doubt the argument and evidence in the article will change the opinions of many posters here, even if it is creditable. As we know from extensive research into how people think, emotions and what they believe trumps evidence.
It is also interesting that Nutting’s other primary source of wealth is Ogden Newspapers which is primary a newspaper company (50+ dailies, more weeklies and some of those ad flyers). The newspaper industry has been on the downhill for the last twenty years with no end in site.
It seems like DK Sports did a very extensive and intense investigation of the Pirates financial situation. I believe the also went into it expecting to find nearly the exact opposite of what they concluded.
The founder and operator of the site has been in the Pittsburgh Sports media a couple of decades – maybe longer.
Not possible to figure out. All the information isn’t available. One saying they made 69m or whatever is a joke though. They have no idea what they are doing. DK made more effort.
Use a lil common sense though. Revenue sharing has been around. Yankees Dodgers Pirates Cleveland keep voting to approve. If Nutting wasn’t making $ or pocketing too much there would have been a problem with agreement. No doubt post health crisis Nutting isn’t making nearly as much. Although if I was losing $ I wouldn’t give Chapman 10.5m
Is Sports Illustrated a credible source? I think so. Is Belko a credible reporter? Must be or SI wouldn’t have published his findings.
Astros said Jon Singleton won’t make their team and he’s out of options. He plays 1B.
We’ll give you some chipped chopped ham and some pierogis to be named later for him.
Throw in some bbq sauce for the chipped ham and it’s a deal
Despite having O’Neill Cruz and Paul Skenes hitting their prime, limted time left in Reynolds prime, and Cutches final season in MLB …
The Pirates ownership has decided this was another year to sit back and develop, and rebuild.
They had every opportunity to upgrade the pen and closers role, but settled on Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza (whoever either of them are)
I do believe that the Tribe got a real milk dud in return for Horwitz. That’s a good move for Pirates. if he wasn’t already hurt
Signing Pham was a joke. He gets in the way more than he helps. And got paid 4x his worth
Hopefully I can look back at this in 4 months and say wow I was wrong , but it seems right now that pirates didn’t improve at all and are potentially worse
The fact is, they will never spend money, even when “the time is right”, they’ve proven to be beyond cheap
Cheap is one thing… an 8 million dollar offseason is beyond cheap
Yeah it’s hard to take them seriously. This was the time to throw money at it. They will be a few games under 500. 79-83 is my guess
I know it’s only 4 mil for Pham but I just wish they’d stop pretending.
If all they could truly afford was a 4 mil player, than I’d much prefer they had just saved it and spend 8 mil on a more realistic upgrade in 2026
Because that’s the point they’re at.
Ortiz is now under the direction of Carl Willis. Ortiz will be fine by June. The dud in the trade was Horowitz. Cleveland also got 2 more pitchers in that trade. Highway robbery.
Agreed 100%
Their only real chance was to dominate the pitching game , but Jared Jones injury + having the worst bullpen ever isn’t going to accomplish that
The Pittsburgh Poverty Pirates are gonna surprise a lot of people this year.
I just don’t have them being anywhere close to competitive with the Reds and Brewers this season
Pirates have far and away the highest-ceiling rotation in the division. But they’ll need a lot of breaks to have a lineup that can even be mediocre.
They did before Jones got hurt
Now they’re back to having a bad rotation.
He’s proving to be very injury prone. Heaney also a guy with a career full of injuries
And I think Reds and Brewers have pretty great rotations right now.
It’s not like pitching is an issue for either of them
Mlodzinski is gonna be an odd piece. This organization just knows how to screw things up.
The Pirates got a GM and along with about 4 of their players (Mayza, IKF, Borucki, Horwitz), from the Jays.
Maybe they should seek castoffs from well run teams.
Don’t forget the hitting coach.
Makes no sense. Wouldn’t castoffs from poorly run teams be good players?? Go get Addison Barger now. Dopes in Jays front office sent the young power hitting prospect to Buffalo. Fools.
All I wanna know is what is going on with Jared Jones. When are we gonna find out!
The less we hear the more I fear
There was an article in local newspapers and media about President of Baseball Operations, Williams, claiming that the reason they haven’t increased payroll was because Nutting has been losing money in the last few years
Considering how much and often this franchise lies, I find it hard to believe what he says
Nutting certainly had the money to improve conditions with new restaurants around PNC Park. so I don’t buy what they are selling
If I was a businessman who owned a company that was worth $1.2 billion dollars and I was consistently losing money, that business would be on the market
There weren’t any one the Pirates were going to spend $$ on. 1B was the only real fit, and Alonso was always going back. Walker would’ve sufficed but they weren’t going to pay $60Ms. Adames was never a real option. Pham stinks but I mean Hays was the only other real option. Santander always out of the picture. A trade for an OFer maybe. But the Horowitz call, besides him being hurt, was a good move. Dealt from depth, and Ortiz really wasn’t special. Cleveland may develop him, PGH never was going to. Rotations strong, ‘pen absolutely has to recover. They need a SS. not 8 guys who seem to be 2B type.
They could have signed Carlos Santana but the cheapskate wouldn’t give him the contract he wanted
Santana also wanted to come back last year, instead they signed Tellez for $2 million dollars less
That was last year. I’m speaking on this year lol.
And I was talking about this year
DUH
try reading my entire comment
Santana as much as I liked him for $12M no thanks. Horowitz will be a better player if the wrist injury heals fine. Always so pessimistic you are.
I have been a Pirate fan since 1966, a one time season ticket holder ( for 30 years), have witnessed the good and the horrible.
I am permitted to be a pessimist about this organization
You are yeah. And that’s fine. Yet just because you are old and remember pre-free agency when all teams could compete doesn’t mean you HAVE to be so pessimistic all the time. There’s enough bad and ugly with this team. Don’t need to be the guy to add to it is all I’m saying.
4 lefties in bullpen? Bae and Jack both make team? Endy, the best defensive catcher in organization, playing 1st with a last st game to only reps of spring?
I’d rather see Bart at first base and Rodriguez catching. As you said, Rodriguez is their best defensive cathcer.
So why not give him a last day spring break crash course at first. Makes so much sense. In all honesty, I wouldn’t surprised to see another lost cost accusation like D Smith in the next few days. Don’t see a need for Bae and Frazier both in the roster
Just a few weeks ago, Mastermind Shelton said that Endy would not play first base at all
As I said previously, this management lies with impunity every chance they get
He got a few innings there today during the last spring training game. They had this well mapped out the entire time lol
Surprised over the past few weeks that no one suggested signing Daniel Vogelbach to a one month contract until the new guy comes back. He is already with the team in a coaching capacity.
No MLB owner is losing money. None. Owning a team is a cash cow or they wouldn’t own it for very long.
Not a fan of decision to fill Jones spot in rotation with Mlodzinski. He was a failed SP in AA the last time he was in the rotation. The Pirates are once again trying to manipulate service time by not filling the slot with one of Chandler, Harrington, Burrows, or Ashcraft. All have better arms and more success as SP’s than CM.
I agree they should not turn Mlodzinski into a stater. I think Burrows makes sense and he is not a candidate for service time manipulation. He seems to be major league ready. I definitely would give Chandler and Harrington more time in AAA. (both will be up by mid year). Ashcraft needs to prove he is healthy and show he can perform. He is currently a big question mark.
Well, over the last 5 games in spring training, the Bucs led the Grapefruit league in one important category
Strikeouts including 14 in today’s game