Last night, Jared Jones made his latest rehab start, taking his talents to Altoona to pitch for Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate, the Curve.

In his first start of the season in Altoona, the right-hander pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out four en route to an eventual 1-0 win for the Curve. Jones never faced more than four batters in an inning, and no base runner made it farther than first.

For Jones, it was his third rehab start in the minor leagues during an assignment that has gone a little out of order. Still working back from UCL surgery that wiped out his entire 2025 season, Jones made his first rehab start down in Low-A Bradenton on April 29th. There, he tossed three blank frames with five strikeouts.

A week later, he was transferred all the way up to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he went five innings and held opponents to one run on five hits, with two strikeouts and a walk.

It’s not much longer before Jones makes his long-awaited return to Pittsburgh, and when he does, the Pirates will have to do some re-configuring of their pitching staff.

Though the starting rotation is performing decently well as is, getting Jones back into the fold will further supplement that group. As a rookie in 2024, Jones went 6-8 with a 4.14 ERA, 1.192 WHIP, and 3.398 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The 24-year-old was one of the earliest arrivals in the immense crop of young pitching talent the Pirates have assembled and developed over the last few years.It’s hard to remember now, but Jones actually predates the majority of this current rotation.

The former second-round pick from 2020 made the Opening Day roster back in 2024, making eight starts before the vaunted Paul Skenes arrived. Jones also predates the MLB debuts of both Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler.

So when he does come back, where does he go, and how do the Pirates handle their rotation moving forward?

In my opinion, the return of Jones, in essence, gives the Pirates back two players. They get Jones back as a starting pitcher with an enticing arsenal, but they also get Carmen Mlodzinski back in the position where he best helps this team.

In the absence of Jones in 2025, the Pirates tried Mlodzinski out as a starting pitcher. The former starter in the minor leagues struggled to make anywhere near the impact in Pittsburgh as he did coming out of the bullpen. As a starter, the righty posted a 4.99 ERA in 48.2 innings. As a reliever, that number plummeted to 2.15 in 50.1 innings.

This season, after a winter of working with Mlodzinski with more preparation for a starter’s job, the Pirates decided to give the idea another run. While the 27-year-old has had some dominant moments as a starter this season, like the six-inning shutout performance against Washington a month back. But overall, the experiment has shown unsteady results.

Through seven starts (eight games) Mlodzinski has a 4.50 ERA, 1.450 WHIP, and 3.15 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In his last four games, however, he’s posted an ERA of 7.32.

At the same time, Pittsburgh’s bullpen is struggling. Few relievers have given anyone the reason to feel fully confident in them, and the Pirates have a serious deficit of reliable middle-inning arms.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who has shown he effectively pitch multiple innings of relief to help bridge the gap between starter and closer?

That’s where Mlodzinski, over the course of his major league career, has thrived. It’s also what the Pirates need most from a pitching aspect right now.

Moving Mlodzinski back to the bullpen also allows the Pirates to better help Jones pace himself back into a major league workload.

Jones went at least six innings in 16 of his 22 starts back in 2024, topping seven innings three times and eight innings once. He was a pretty efficient arm for the Pirates and in time, there’s little doubt in his ability to get back to that.

But as he works his way back in, he’s very likely going to start on some form of a pitch count. His rehab starts in the minor leagues so far have kept his pitch numbers relatively low. He threw just 41 pitches in Bradenton, followed by 54 in Indianapolis, and 52 in his most recent work in Altoona.

Even if that number gets ramped up before he is recalled, it’s reasonable to expect that the Pirates will want to handle their starter with some caution. It also fits the managing style of Don Kelly, who has showed a tendency to pull starters earlier than fans would at times.

Say Jones is pitching about five innings worth of work in his first few starts. Kelly can then slot Mlodzinski in to piggyback off Jones, giving the Pirates two (hopefully) reliable arms and also giving their bullpen a rest.

But Mlodzinski as a bulk reliever is not limited to starts made by Jones. Having that flexibility to use him in a variety of roles, including extra-innings, would provide a boost to the bullpen and take some of the pressure off a guy like Yohan Ramírez, who has taken up the long-relief role for the most part this season.

This rotation is strong with Jones in it. This bullpen gets stronger if Mlodzinski is in it. The return of Jones ultimately gives the Pirates more flexibility, and if history is any guide, it will quickly erase the swelling in Mlodzinski’s numbers.