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How Will the Pirates Handle All of Their Starting Pitching Options in September?

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PITTSBURGH – In about a week and a half, MLB rosters will expand from 25-man rosters to a maximum of 40 players. Anyone on the 40-man roster can be added to the active roster during this time. I wrote about some of the possibilities for this earlier in the week. On Sunday, Neal Huntington discussed a few specific players, along with the overall approach, in his weekly meeting with the media, including our own Alan Saunders.

“It’s just depth and options,” Huntington said on the expected call-ups. “The first handful of years here, it was guys that we were taking a look at for the future and/or maybe wanted to reward for having a great season. Now, it’s about how can someone help us win a game? Is it two innings out of the bullpen, a spot start, a pinch run, another defensive option that Clint can get aggressive with a double switch late in the game? The guys that we bring up, we’ll bring up because in some way, shape or form, we think they can help us win a game because of an asset or a skill set that they have.”

A big part of that depth comes from extra pitching, giving additional starters who can make a spot start, or ensuring that your team is covered in a long extra innings game. The Pirates have several starters in Indianapolis who could all be options for the big leagues, but who are currently held back due to a lack of need in the MLB rotation. From Huntington’s comments, it sounds like Steven Brault and Drew Hutchison have the inside track, while Trevor Williams might be out of the mix, due to a lack of opportunity.

“We’re in a good spot with Hutchison and Brault as guys — Brault’s struggle last night notwithstanding — as guys being options for us to make spot starts for us in September if we wanted to give an individual a break or if we wanted to give the group and extra day,” Huntington said. “Trevor’s throwing the ball really well and certainly has factored into our plans as we move forward. … Trevor’s had a really good year for us. We like some of the things he does and he absolutely factors into our plans as we go forward and maybe this year, as well.”

Huntington discussed how having too many pitchers can be a negative for a manager, as it can be difficult to keep them all active and all sharp. So you can see how having three starters pitching out of the bullpen would make it difficult to get everyone innings. That said, I think Williams would be a good option strictly as a reliever and a ground ball specialist. But the challenge here is that the Pirates would have to create a 40-man roster spot for him, and they might need those spots for other players. It doesn’t seem like anything is final right now, with the exception that Williams is behind Brault and Hutchison in the starting depth department.

As for Hutchison, the Pirates haven’t made any changes with him yet, just evaluating him for now. Huntington discussed the recent outings, and their evaluation of how Hutchison has done so far.

“We’re just learning about him, what he’s done in the past, what his struggles have been, how we can help him,” Huntington said. “There’s a really good athlete and a really intelligent pitcher in here. We’re just working to help him maximize those abilities. We’re counting on him whether it’s later this year or certainly in the future. We like a lot about him, we gave up some significant players to get him and it’s been good. He’s had one inning, basically, in each of the two starts where he’s getting hit and things have unraveled on him quickly. He does a great job of keeping the ball out of the middle of the plate, but the few times it’s crept into the middle of the plate, it’s been hit hard. The question is how do we best capitalize on the athlete that’s there and the intelligence that’s there and on the quality young man that’s there?”

Beyond Brault and Hutchison, the only other starting candidate would be Tyler Glasnow. But the Pirates are focusing on Glasnow’s rehab right now, which had a slight setback last week, and will resume tomorrow with Altoona.

“He’s a big, long man that can sometimes get out of sync. It just didn’t feel right,” Huntington said about Glasnow’s break in his rehab. “That’s the beauty of the minor-league rehab is that when it just doesn’t feel right, you can cut it off and let’s do what we need to do to get it to the point where it feels better. It felt good in his last side and we’ll see where it goes tomorrow night and make a determination of where that is beyond tomorrow night, and maybe as he comes out of his pen on Wednesday.”

By having so many starting options, the Pirates could opt to skip a start from Jameson Taillon, making sure he can pitch into October, if needed. Huntington reiterated that the Pirates are more focused on efficiency and pitches, more than innings, and high stress pitches more than total pitches.

“He’s bouncing back tremendously well,” Huntington said of Taillon. “He feels great after a little bit of downtime around the All-Star break. … That saved us some pitches. Our goal is to get him in the position to go deep into October without redlining. At the same time we don’t want to leave pitches in the bank. We’ll see where we are. The nice part of having some options in September is we could give somebody a skipped turn or we could give the entire rotation an extra day as we go through a long stretch of games in September. To help whoever needs it individually, but maybe collectively.”

The Pirates have just two off-days between now and the end of the season, and one of those is on September 1st, before they get any additional benefits from rosters expanding. If they need to find a way to keep their starters fresh through the end of the year, they won’t be able to rely on off days like they’ve done in the last month. Fortunately, with rosters expanding, and plenty of starting depth available, they’ll be able to call on another option when they need to give a regular starter a break.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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