After returning from the canceled 2020 season, the minor leagues adjusted the schedule to have team’s play six-game series from Tuesday through Sunday, with a near universal day off for travel on Monday. It’s a system that is still being used to this day, now entering year three of doing so.
One of the ways the Pirates tried and eased pitchers back into a full season worth of baseball was to adapt to the schedule and use a six-man rotation. After missing an entire year of competition, this eased pitchers back in by having them pitch once a week.
Last year we saw every level except for Bradenton go back to a five-man rotation for most of the season, although the pitcher throwing twice in a week sometimes was on a more strict pitch limit.
Now entering year three of having the schedule this way, should the Pirates revert back to a six-man rotation?
While it does limit the amount of innings that pitchers are getting, potentially slowing down development, it does keep more options available. The Pirates are going to have quite the traffic jam in Indianapolis to start the year, with depending how the major league roster shakes down, there could be quite a few names forced back to Altoona to start the season.
We know it’s looking like Roansy Contreras, Mitch Keller, JT Brubaker, Rich Hill and potentially Vince Velasquez will get the first crack at the major league rotation. If they want to keep Johan Oviedo as a starter, he’d have to slide to Indianapolis to have some depth on the 40-man roster.
That leaves up to nine potential names for the rotation for Indianapolis;
Oviedo
Luis Ortiz
Mike Burrows
Cody Bolton
Tyler Chatwood
Wei-Chieh Huang
Carmen Mlodzinski
Kyle Nicolas
Quinn Priester
You can make a case that Bolton, Mlodzinski and Nicolas (pictured above) can slide to the bullpen, which has a logjam of its own before factoring them in, but I’m not sure it’s time to pull the plug in some of those cases.
Fastball, fastball, slider. Easy peasy strikeout for Quinn Priester #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/10j3XCs4hk
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) September 15, 2022
Mlodzinski/Nicolas could head back to Altoona to start the season, if only to keep as many arms stretched out as possible. The Curve used a lot of piggyback pitchers in the early stages of the season, with the starters never really pitching more than four innings at a time.
Double-A Altoona could have a similar situation, especially if one of those names slide down from Indy. Justin Meis, Jared Jones, Sean Sullivan, Ricky DeVito, and Aaron Shortridge are among candidates to start in the Curve rotation to start the year. Braxton Ashcraft will be coming off of Tommy John, so he’ll be eased back in, and he eventually could be in line for a rotation spot.
The other player in the Richard Rodriguez, Ricky DeVito has had an up and down season this year. He has great stuff, and misses a lot of bats, but control has been an issue. He's also pitched better in Greensboro, which is rare #LetsGoBucs I'll have more on him Tuesday pic.twitter.com/jWMiwSdIBd
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) July 10, 2022
If Ashcraft sticks in Greensboro, where he last pitched in 2021, he will join a picture that includes most of the Bradenton rotation from last year. Valentin Linarez, Bubba Chandler, Po-Yu Chen, Carlos Jimenez, and Anthony Solometo should all factor into the mix.
They also heavily invested into college pitching in last year’s draft, with Thomas Harrington among them. He could also start the year in Greensboro, giving them anywhere from six to eight options right out the gate.
There are plenty of pros and cons when it comes to a six man rotation in the minors. It makes sure your prospects arms don’t have a chance to get worn down over a long season, but it doesn’t really allow you to prepare them for a major league workload.
Times are different now, and there aren’t many starters pitching deeper into games as the league becomes more and more analytically dependent. That actually works in the favor of a six-man rotation.
It will be interesting to see how the Pirates utilize the amount of options they have, starting pitcher wise. They have a lot of prospects with upside, but need the innings to try and get there.
Highlight of the Day
Pirates Prospects Daily
By Tim Williams
**For a second there, I thought Anthony was going to be advocating for a six-man MLB rotation. I would be for it. Or, at least a five-man rotation with a fifth starter piggyback situation. I wrote about this idea in my column last week.
**Ethan Hullihen broke down how service time works in his latest Pirates Business article.
**Missed yesterday? Anthony broke down the backup catcher battle after the recent addition of Kevin Plawecki.
