The Pirates have finalized their Opening Day picks, with MLB.com’s Jason Mackey covering the notable details. Carmen Mlodzinski will find a place to rotate in the season José Urquidy again Hunter Barco will start the season in the barn again Mike Clevinger will head to Triple-A. Alex Stumpf reports that Clevinger had an upward movement phase in his minor league deal, but it appears that did not lead to a roster spot with any of the 30 clubs in the league.
The Bucs went into the winter with a lot of games and used that to strengthen their roster. They combine Mike Burrows in the exchange of three teams that gathered them in the net Brandon Lowe again Jake Mangumand a reliever Mason Montgomery. They scrolled Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox in a five-player trade, the Bucs’ priority is an outfielder Jhostynxon García. They still have a strong front four that includes Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler again Braxton Ashcraft. At the end of the camp, Mlodzinski, Urquidy, Barco and Clevinger were seen fighting for the last place.
Mlodzinski enters the season with a 3.25 earned run average in 185 2/3 innings as a swingman. He struck out 21.7% of the batters he faced while giving up walks at an 8.2% clip, both average marks. His ground ball rate of 47.1% is a few ticks north of par.
It seems that there is a belief that he can get a new gear. Mlodzinski tells Mackey that he feels much better now than he did last year because of improvements in his splitter and curveball. He threw both pitches at the league level for the first time last year. It is hoped that a more diverse arsenal can help him find more success as he rotates the roster. Mlodzinski allowed a .214/.281/.294 line against the lineup for the first time but a massive .381/.422/.607 line the second time around.
Appropriately, he had a large camp. Spring performances always need to be taken with a grain of salt but he posted a 2.92 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, a 3.6% walk rate and a 56.8% groundball rate. The Bucs will give him a chance to continue this regular season.
Jared Jones he will be back from his surgery sometime in the next few months and will need a brace but another injury will probably pop up between now and then. Mlodzinski still has an option and could be sent to the minors but that is also true of Ashcraft, Chandler and Jones. Time will tell how everything goes.
Meanwhile, there are domino effects for other guys who were in the mix. Urquidy had a great career but missed most of 2024 and 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Bucs offered him a major league contract but he didn’t have a great camp, allowing 11 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. It looks like he will start the season as a long reliever, perhaps as a rehab assignment.
As for Barco, it’s surprising to see him on the opening day lineup. He has options and is still expected to be a significant starter in the long run, so there was an argument for him to stretch Triple-A.
Mackey suggests his path forward could be similar to that of Ashcraft, who threw 69 2/3 innings in the majors last year and 48 1/3 in the minors. Major league career split between eight starts and 18 bullpen appearances, most of which were more than an inning. Ashcraft entered 2025 having never thrown more than 73 innings in a season. He hit 118 last year, between his minor league debut and that big league role. That should put him in a position to jump into something like a full-time starter’s job in 2026.
Barco totaled 102 1/3 innings last year between the majors and minors, a career high. Ideally, he’ll encourage that this year to continue building for a full starting workload. For now, that will be in the big league bullpen. He has options and could be sent down to regular Triple-A duty at some point or maybe an injury will open up a rotation role in the majors.
As for Clevinger, it’s been a few years since he’s had a good start in the big leagues, which is why he had to deal with a minor league contract this offseason. His velocity was up this spring, an encouraging sign, but the results weren’t enough to hold a roster spot. He struck out 25% of the batters he faced in the spring games but also gave up walks at a 16.7% clip and posted a 5.02 ERA.
He will likely be in the Triple-A rotation, always ready to be called up at some point. The fact that he is not on the 40-man roster may work for him. Thomas Harrington again Wilber Dotel has 40 man spots and will also make Triple-A starts while still on voluntary assignment.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
