Fifth Avenue Sports

With Martin Perez still on the Injured List from his groin issue in May, and his replacement Quinn Preister recently joining him with a right lat issue, the mound will belong to Carmen Mlodzinski tomorrow as the Pirates put together their first bullpen game of the season.

Mlodzinski has pitched 10.2 innings for the Pirates this season coming out of the bullpen. The righty has a 6.75 ERA, 1.781 WHIP, and 11 strikeouts in limited action this season for Pittsburgh.

A first round pick by the Pirates in 2020, Mlodzinski broke into the big leagues last season when he pitched 36.0 innings with a 3-3 record, 2.25 ERA and 1.278 WHIP with the Pirates. He was one of the team’s better bullpen arms last season, being second on the team in ERA behind David Bednar.

However, this season has been a different story. Injury hampered his spring training time, and once he returned from the IL the Pirates optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. With Indy, he had a very uncharacteristic 6.43 ERA in 14.0 innings.

Despite the early struggles, the Pirates recalled Mlodzinski in an effort to shake up an underperforming bullpen. His ERA is inflated from a harsh start to his big league season, including back to back 3-run outings in mid/late May.

But he has pitched his last 5.0 innings without being charged for a run, and now the 25-year old will make his first start of the season against the Minnesota Twins at PNC Park.

This is not Mlodzinski’s first go around as a starter however, so I figured now was a good time to look at the experience the South Carolina native has as a starting pitcher.

When he was drafted by the Pirates, the organization envisioned him as a starting pitcher. They liked his stuff and his pitch arsenal, which they believed was more than enough to be a starting pitcher inside the Pirates organization.

That idea was still held in 2021, when he started 14 games for Pittsburgh’s High-A affiliate in Greensboro, pitching to a 3.93 ERA and 1.291 WHIP in 50.1 total innings.

The following year, he was promoted to Double-A Altoona, where the Pirates still viewed him largely as a starter. He pitched over 100 innings for the Curve in 2022, with a 4.78 ERA and 1.415 WHIP. Despite the high usage, Mlodzinski made 5 of his 27 games as a reliever instead of a starter.

In those instances, he was used as a long reliever; he pitched 4+ innings in 4 of those 5 appearances, but it was a sign that maybe things could be changing for Mlodzinski.

Only 8 of his 22 starts saw Mlodzinski give up 1 run or fewer to opponents; meanwhile, 7 times he gave up 3+ runs.

It wasn’t the encouraging kind of year the Pirates organization was hoping from Mlodzinski. His ERA being close to 5.00 with Altoona was not promising, but the Pirates still really believed in his arsenal and abilities. He was striking out 9.5 batters per nine innings and had a K/BB ratio of 2.78.

So the team put together a new plan for Mlodzinski’s path to the big leagues: one that saw him get there as a reliever.

The thought process was that the team could get a lot more out of his skill if he wasn’t out there for so many innings. In a more role coming out of the bullpen, it looked as though the Pirates were right.

Against steeper competition with Indianapolis, Mlodzinski’s ERA dropped to 3.04 in 26.2 innings pitched for Indy. His days as a starter were left behind in Altoona, and when the Pirates called him up in mid-June, he was kept in the bullpen as a relieving arm for the Pirates.

His starting numbers had been discouraging by and large, but his reliever stats much better resembled the guy the organization envisioned they were getting back at that 2020 draft.

That belief was solidified when the Pirates had most a majority of their rotation to injury, and virtually every other game for the team was started by a journeyman pitcher, converted reliever, or both as they limped to the end of the season.

It is important to note that Mlodzinki did start one game for the Pirates last season back on July 9th, but that start only lasted 1.1 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 1, giving up an unearned run in a 4-2 Pirates win that saw 7 different pitchers appear for Pittsburgh.

But he has not had any kind of starting pitcher workload since his days with the Curve back in Double-A. It just isn’t his game at this point.

With that in mind, my guess would be for Mlodzinski to be capped at a few innings tomorrow. In his last 5.0 innings, opponents are batting a mere .067 against him, and 61% of his pitches were good for strikes – evident that he is better in smaller quantities.

He has not pitched more than 2.0 innings in a game this season, and with Luis Ortiz not in action over the last few days, he will be an integral part in getting the Bucs through the middle innings against Minnesota.

I know that I am in the minority with this belief, but I find bullpen games very entertaining. I like seeing more players than usual get time in games, and it’s fascinating to see how relievers perform in roles they aren’t used to.

But for Mlodzinski, he is used to that mindset as a starting pitcher. Let’s just hope it goes a little bit better now that he’s wearing black and yellow and not red and white.

(Featured photo by Rob Lynn/Altoona Curve)