PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – He’s the fifth starter on a team where the starting pitching is its strength. He hasn’t started in three years and on Sunday against the Braves, Carmen Mlodzinski made a statement with 5.2 scoreless innings. Can he carve out an opportunity for himself, or become valuable in a trade for hitting?
The 26-year-old asked Pirates management to return to the rotation, where he pitched at the University of South Carolina, before the start of this season. Multiple openings occurred early on when Jared Jones and Johan Oviedo had injury setbacks. Those two are expected to return this season and then there are a trio of pitchers in AAA making a push. Mlodzinski has to pitch well every time out.
"The internal competition is always going to be there,” Mlodzinski said. “With changing faces and new teams and new years, that's never going away. There is always somebody behind you. There's always going to be somebody in front of you, unless you're the best player in the world, which I'm not.”
“There's always going to be a drive to get better. You always have to continue to get better at this game."
Beyond Jones and Oviedo, who have at least flashed a bit at the MLB level, there are the three at AAA, two with more experience.
· RHP Bubba Chandler (7 starts, 2-1, 2.25 ERA, 28IP, 15H, 11BB, 41K, 0.93WHIP, .160 BA against)
· RHP Mike Burrows (6 starts, 2.63 ERA, 27.1IP, 10BB, 37K, 1.06 WHIP, .190 BA against)
· LHP Hunter Barco (1 start, 4.1IP, 2H, R, 3BB, 5K, did not give up a run over 25.1 innings in AA in 2025)
Sunday, against a team in the playoffs last year, Mlodzinski made a statement. He’ll need to make more, but it was an important step.
“Yeah, it's huge,” said Pirates catcher Joey Bart. “You've gotta learn. This game's all about learning and understanding, whatever position you're in. It takes a lot to be good, but you're really never that far away. If you can just climb this thing by inches and inches every day, figuring out how to get better, you're gonna put yourself in a good spot. And I feel like that's what he did (Sunday).”
“Just tried to pump some confidence in him. Let him know that, 'Hey, man, you're really, really good. You got really good stuff. And if you keep working, you're gonna be headed in the right direction.”
“He looked efficient,” said Pirates manager Don Kelly. “He was commanding everything and getting ahead. Really just staying in the zone, stayed in the zone all the way through competing like that.”
“He’s had ups-and-downs. You see how it’s gone the first two times through the order and then he’s hit a little wall there. (Sunday) you didn’t see that. He continued to push. He continued to grind through and I think that going from relieving to starting, it takes some time. We will see how he continues to progress. (Sunday) was great.”
It was Mldozinski’s longest outing since August 30, 2022 when he went six innings for AA Altoona. He attacked hitters. He only struck out two, walked one and got a lot of lazy fly balls against the Braves.
The Hilton Head native said he will continue to fight. He’s a competitor and wants to be an MLB starter and Sunday really took advantage of an opportunity. Now it’s up to him to continue and then management to either give him a shot or use him as a chip to find some offense.