The Pirates are promoting top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler to the major leagues, according to a report from Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com adds that Chandler’s contract will be selected to the roster on Friday, while Hiles notes that Chandler will pitch in a long relief role.
It’s a long-awaited promotion for Chandler, who entered the season viewed as a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport and on the shortlist for the league’s very best pitching prospects. The 22-year-old hurler reached the Triple-A level last year and opened eyes with a brilliant 1.83 ERA in seven starts where he struck out 34.0% of batters faced, and that led many to speculate upon whether or not Chandler would be brought up to the majors early in the 2025 campaign or perhaps even join the club’s Opening Day rotation.
That’s not the route that Pittsburgh decided to take. Chandler has spent the entire 2025 campaign at Triple-A to this point and will now will only get promoted to the majors for the final weeks of the season. The right-hander did everything he could to force the issue early in the season, with a sterling 2.03 ERA and a 35.0% strikeout rate in 11 starts through the end of May. His call to the majors never came, however, and Chandler began to struggled as the summer began. Since June began, Chandler has struggled to a 5.96 ERA due in part to vanishing command. He’s struck out just 22.1% of his opponents during that time while walking a hefty 13.1%.
A .377 BABIP since the start of June is surely the culprit for at least some of those struggles, however, and it’s also possible that the challenge of a new level could help invigorate Chandler upon his arrival to the majors. After all, this is the same prospect who dominated Triple-A to the tune of a 1.94 ERA, 2.79 FIP, and 34.6% strikeout rate across his first 18 starts at the level. High as the right-hander’s upside clearly appears to be, however, his recent struggles can’t be ignored. Perhaps that’s why the Pirates will look to ease him into the majors with a bullpen role to start off his big league career.
It’s hardly an unprecedented path for even a potential star player to take. Chris Sale and, more recently, Garrett Crochet both spent years pitching out of the bullpen before moving into the rotation and becoming the ace-level arms we know today. That doesn’t appear to be the plan for Chandler, of course, as Stumpf writes that the Pirates view Chandler as a starter long-term and he could get starts at the big league level later this year. Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer served as a swing man for the Diamondbacks during his first year in the big leagues, while current rookies like Joey Cantillo, Brad Lord, and Ryan Gusto have also broken into the majors by starting out in a hybrid role between starting and relief work. That’s also true for a few of Chandler’s Pirates teammates like Braxton Ashcraft and Mike Burrows.
More to come.
