Pirates Considering Six-Man Rotation
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have 43 games remaining in the 2025 season will likely look at many different starting pitcher options the rest of the way.
The Pirates currently have four starting pitchers in the rotation, which includes right-handers in All-Star Paul Skenes, veteran Mitch Keller and rookie Mike Burrows, plus left-hander Andrew Heaney.
Right-hander Johan Oviedo originally took back the fifth spot in the Pirates rotation, following the trade of left-hander Bailey Falter to the Kansas City Royals on July 31, but went back down to Triple-A Indianapolis after throwing 43 pitches in one inning over the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park on August 4.
While the Pirates are still figuring out how to get back to five starting pitchers, general manager Ben Cherington is optimistic about the future of the rotation and the many options he has at his disposal.
Cherington spoke about the starting pitching on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan with Pirates play-by-play commentator Greg Brown on August10. He said that he wants to give more starts than just five pitchers and that he's working with manger Don Kelly and pitching coach Oscar Marin for the rest of 2025.
"The way I see it is that we have more than five guys we’d like to get starts for and so we’re mapping that out as we speak," Cherington said. "Donnie and Oscar and our staff are working through the calendar to start to plan out, ‘Well, how can we manage that?’
"It may be that different guys get an opportunity to start a game. Obviously, some guys you’d expect will continue to get starts, but I think we have more than five pitchers in the organization that can get some starts the rest of the way and we’re just going to map that out accordingly."
Brown asked Cherington about a potential six-man starting rotation heading into the end of the season, which Cherinton said could happen, with teams able to have 14 pitchers starting September 1.
“It could be, that could be one option," Cherington said on the six-man rotation. "It’s a little bit easier as you get into September with the extra pitcher. So maybe that’s one way to do it. There’s different ways to look at it. So we’re going through those iterations now and most importantly, once we have a better idea of how we might map that out, then it’s just about, we want to be really good in our communications with the pitchers themselves, so they sort of anticipate and know what to expect. So we’re in that process. I expect that I’ll learn more about that in the coming days.”
The Pirates will likely add Oviedo back after his stint with Indianapolis, but also could bring up top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler in the next week or so too.
Carmen Mlodzinski, who was one of the original starting pitchers for the Pirates before Burrows took his spot, could also factor into the rotation again.
But the Pirates also have consider that both Burrows and right-handed relief pitcher Braxton Ashcraft, who both have extensive injury histories, have already hit their career-highs in innings pitched at the professional level.
Right-handed pitcher Thomas Harrington, who made a start earlier this season, is also a potential option for the Pirates later on, as they try and figure out if he has what it takes to pitch at the MLB level.
Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.