Hartsock

Notes and observations through the first two months of an entertaining Pittsburgh Pirates season:

– Jared Jones’ return to the pitching mound for the Pirates on Friday night against the Minnesota Twins after an 18-month hiatus brought about an interesting set of circumstances.

Jones set the baseball world on its ear as a rookie early in the 2024 season, before leveling off as that season progressed and suffering an elbow injury in spring training 2025 that required brace surgery and put him on the sidelines for all of last year.

During the first of a recent two-start rehab stint with the Altoona Curve earlier this season, Jones made no bones about the fact that he expected to immediately rejoin the Pirates’ starting rotation when he was eventually called up to the big leagues.

That’s fine and dandy on the surface — a healthy Jones returning to the form that he exhibited early in the 2024 season would provide a tremendous addition to a front-line Pirates rotation that is arguably one of the best in Major League Baseball right now.

But the fact also remains that Jones has a lot to prove after a long time out of the game, and his posture about his role in the starting rotation during his time in Altoona seemed presumptuous at best.

The Pirates’ three front-line starters — reigning Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, veteran Mitch Keller and red-hot newcomer Braxton Ashcraft — have given the Pirates a top of the rotation tandem that no opposing team would look forward to facing in a playoff series.

Carmen Mlodzinski and highly-touted Bubba Chandler have held down the bottom two spots in the starting rotation, with pedestrian results so far.

Mlodzinski has been the more effective of the two in the starting role that he has openly coveted, but the fact that the Pirates are currently in need of fortifying a shaky bullpen that has let several late-inning leads slip away in games this year creates somewhat of a perfect storm against him remaining in the rotation.

Either Mlodzinski, Jones or Chandler would be the odd man out in the five-man starting rotation, and Mlodzinski’s experience in working out of the bullpen earlier in his career — along with his potentially giving the team a much-needed asset in the pen now — probably did as much as anything to contribute to the Pirates’ decision to move Mlodzinski out of the starting rotation this week.

Mlodzinski was non-commital in his comments to the media this week about the change, offering only a comment that he and his teammates would be supportive of Jones in his return, but Mlodzinski’s somber tone and body language in his dealings with the media about his thoughts on the move revealed a truth that 1,000 words could not.

Mlodzinski is clearly unhappy about the change, but he’s toeing the company line because to do otherwise would not serve anybody’s best interest on the team — especially his own.

The best — and only — approach that Mlodzinski should take is to put his nose to the grindstone in the bullpen, and to let the chips fall where they fall.

It will be interesting to see how this scenario unfolds. If Jones falters in his return and Chandler continues to be unspectacular, Mlodzinski may get another chance at a starting job.

Neither Jones nor Chandler has pitched out of the bullpen, while Mlodzinski has, and manager Don Kelly said that he believes that this move will help the Pirates win baseball games.

Sometimes, changes like these can help a team, but other times, they may create low-level internal dissention within the player ranks.

Time will tell how this saga will play out, but suffice it to say that Jones, Chandler and Mlodzinski will all be under the microscope for very different reasons.

– The Pirates entered this season in dire need of more offense after finishing at or near the bottom of the National League in several key offensive categories in both of the past two seasons.

The offseason addition of second baseman Brandon Lowe — who had already belted 14 home runs in the Pirates’ first 57 games this season entering the Twins series, and is on pace for his second straight trip to the all-star game — has been nothing short of a front-office steal.

Ryan O’Hearn, who is currently on the injured list, has also been a very positive offseason addition, while there are mixed reviews on veteran free agent signee Marcell Ozuna, whose acquisition by the Pirates for the designated hitter role this past offseason effectively ended hopes of a farewell tour in Pittsburgh for franchise icon Andrew McCutchen, who was recently designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers.

There’s no question that the Pirates’ offense has been vastly improved this season. The Bucs scored 276 runs in their first 57 games. That’s an average of 4.84 runs per game, which is well over a run more than they averaged per game over the entire 2025 season, when they scored a total of just 583 runs in 162 games for a 3.59 runs-per-game average.

The Pirates have hit 61 homers in their first 57 games this year, after hitting only 117 in the entire 2025 season. Along with Lowe’s 14, mercurial outfielder Oneil Cruz has belted 11 this season.

– Cruz’s plate discipline has been better in some areas — he’s carrying a .324 batting average with 23 hits in 71 plate appearances, including four home runs, against left-handed pitchers this season, after managing a total of only 11 hits and a .102 batting average against lefties through the entire 2025 season. But Cruz continues to be sorely lacking in other areas, notably strikeouts per at-bats. Through the first 57 games, Cruz had whiffed an astounding 87 times in 226 plate appearances, a ratio of nearly 36 percent.

n The Pirates’ biggest bullpen busts this season have been veterans Dennis Santana and Justin Lawrence, who both may wind up on the DFA track. In fact, Lawrence was DFA’d late Friday night. Veteran lefty Gregory Soto has embraced the closer’s role and has generally been very good there, while righty Johan Ramirez has been a workhorse in the later innings. Youngster Wilbur Dotel has been impressive this season and is taking over where Isaac Mattson left off last season.

– The Pirates won just a third of their road games last season, when their 27-54 mark away from Pittsburgh’s PNC Park was tied for second worst in the majors.

This season, the Bucs will have already won 14 of their first 27 road games as the month of May draws to a close. If the Pirates were playing as well at PNC Park this season as they had been last year, they would likely be challenging for first place right now in the National League’s Central Division. But the Pirates were only 15-15 through their first 30 home games.

– It will be a lot more difficult for teams to make the six-team postseason field this year in the National League than it will be in the American League, where just this week no less than 11 of the league’s 15 teams had losing records.

Contrast that with the National League, where the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks form a powerful three-headed monster in the NL West, the Atlanta Braves are currently running away from the pack in the NL East, the Milwaukee Brewers are making a strong bid to win their fourth consecutive NL Central, and the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies, despite both enduring roller-coaster journeys to date, both have too much firepower to stay hidden in the weeds for long.

John Hartsock can be reached at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com