The Pittsburgh Pirates farm system remains littered with talented pitchers despite graduating Paul Skenes and Jared Jones to the majors this past season.
With Skenes, Jones, and Mitch Keller, the Pirates have one of the best young rotations in Major League Baseball and have more talented pitchers waiting in the wings. Pittsburgh’s top prospect, right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler, is projected to reach the majors in 2025 with big expectations.
MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo predicted that Chandler would win the National League Rookie of the Year Award and that the team’s recent trade for Spencer Horwitz was a sign that Chandler could be on the roster sooner rather than later.
“With the way Bubba Chandler finished last year at Triple-A, he’s close,” Mayo writes. “Pittsburgh had a fairly deep rotation at the big league level, so I wasn’t sure how that was going to work. And this is where the Spencer Horwitz trade comes into play, because in that trade the Pirates sent Luis Ortiz to Cleveland, so that creates a little bit more of an opening in my book.”
“They have some other options, I know. But for me, that opens an avenue for Bubba Chandler to hit the rotation sooner rather than later. Is it Opening Day? I don’t know. But Paul Skenes wasn’t on the Opening Day roster and he ended up being Rookie of the Year.”
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Chandler is the No. 2 pitching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and No. 15 overall. The young pitcher went 10-7 with a 3.08 ERA, striking out 148 batters across Double-A and Triple-A. In Triple-A, Chandler was a perfect 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA, striking out 54 batters in seven starts. He is primed to make a big impact for the Pirates and should have a good shot to be Rookie of the Year.
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