The Pittsburgh Pirates called up right-handed pitcher Mike Burrows on Saturday, allowing the top ten prospect to make his Major League debut later that evening. To make room on the active roster, Jared Jones was optioned to the FCL Pirates roster. Jones won’t actually use an option year, since he’ll be down for less than 20 days.
After Paul Skenes pitched two perfect innings on Saturday night, the Pirates called upon Burrows as a long reliever. Burrows pitched the next 3.1 innings, allowing two runs on three walks and two hits, while striking out two.
Burrows turned in a perfect inning in the third, picking up his first career MLB strikeout on an 86 MPH changeup. He allowed a walk in the fourth inning, but got out of the frame with a strikeout against Aaron Judge and a caught stealing by Yasmani Grandal. Burrows got Judge swinging on a 94.9 MPH fastball.
The fifth inning saw Burrows give up his lone earned run of the game, with a solo homer allowed to Jazz Chisholm Jr. with two outs. That made the score 4-1 Pirates at the time.
Burrows walked the first two batters of the sixth inning, before getting a line out against Juan Soto. He wasn’t tested against Judge again, with the Pirates calling upon David Bednar to strike out Judge this time. Before the inning was over, a throwing error by Nick Gonzales led to an unearned run for Burrows, with Bednar on the mound.
In total, Burrows threw 68 pitches. Over half were four-seam fastballs, which averaged 94.5 MPH and touched 96.2. He had three whiffs on the pitch. His mid-80s changeup was the next most used pitch, getting one whiff on five swings. Burrows also threw a curveball in the upper 70s and a slider in the mid-to-upper 80s. The curveball was thrown for strikes, but also was the pitch that Chisholm homered against.
This was a good finish to the year for Burrows, who was returning from Tommy John surgery in the minors. The 24-year-old was seen as a rotation depth option at the start of the 2023 season, before going down with the injury. He returned to Triple-A for ten appearances this year, putting up a 4.06 ERA in 37.2 innings, with a 45:15 K/BB. That includes striking out ten in five innings in his final start before his MLB debut.
Burrows should start the 2025 season back in Triple-A, but should be a rotation depth option in the Majors at some point during the year.
