As departures and injuries start mounting up for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the organization is looking for someone in their bullpen to step up and serve in a bulk reliever role.

That spot previously belonged to left-hander Joey Wentz, who opened the season in Pittsburgh’s bullpen. Wentz was a waiver claim towards the end of the 2024 season, but got his real chance with the Pirates heading into 2025.

In 26 innings, Wentz threw to a 4.15 ERA and 1.385 WHIP for the Pirates. Eight of his 19 appearances saw Wentz toss more than one inning, and he pitched to at least six outs on five different occasions.

His final game with the Pirates was on May 27th. After a rough start by Mike Burrows, Wentz was called upon in the fourth inning. Down 2-0 with the bases loaded and one out, Wentz couldn’t bail Burrows out, allowing all three runs to score, which were charged to the starter. Wentz would allow four total runs in that inning, the final being charged to him as the Pirates fell down 6-0.

He was kept in the game largely in a mop up role, but he retired the next 11 batters in a row, pitching a total of 3.2 innings and keeping Arizona off the board as the Pirates mounded an incredible comeback to win 9-6.

He hadn’t pitched for over a week before the Pirates finally designated him for assignment on June 7th, bringing up righty Isaac Mattson in his place. Wentz didn’t exactly perform badly, but it was clear he was the odd man out in the bullpen.

Mattson has pitched really well, but swapping the two relievers has sort of left the Pirates without a guy who can be counted on to regularly toss multiple innings.

Perhaps that role now belongs to Carmen Mlodzinski.

Since returning from an optioning to Triple-A Indianapolis, Mlodzinski has made three appearances out of the bullpen.

On June 13th, the 26-year-old threw two innings of relief in Chicago in an eventual extra innings win for the Pirates. He surrendered three hits but held the Cubs scoreless. His longer work allowed the Pirates to go to their prime late-game setup: Caleb Ferguson in the eighth, Dennis Santana, in the ninth, and David Bednar in the tenth.

Four days later, Mlodzinski was lit up against Detroit. Facing the best team in baseball, he allowed four hits, four earned runs, and was ultimately charged with the loss, his fifth of the major league season. It was a bad day on the mound for Mlodzinski, but he was not the only pitcher who had a rough outing during the Pirates’ series in Detroit.

On Saturday, Mlodzinski was sent back out, taking over for Mitch Keller in the sixth inning after the righty had gotten himself into a little bit of trouble. Keller had allowed only one unearned run heading into the sixth, before two singles, a walk, and a sacrifice fly all piled up. Keller had gotten two outs mixed into that, but manager Don Kelly gave him the hook before the inning was out.

Mlodzinski was able to quickly secure a groundout to end the sixth, and he wound up staying in the game until partway through the ninth. The righty went 2.1 innings, holding Texas to just one hit.

He started to wear down in the ninth, where he issued a pair of walks with no one out. Those walks pushed his strike-to-ball ratio to just 18-of-35, but getting seven outs with that few pitches was still decent work.

Kelly called on Santana to help put out the mini fire in the ninth, giving the Pirates one last chance in the bottom half of the ninth. You don’t have to have watched the game to know that the Pirates failed to put up a run, down 3-2.

Since coming back to Pittsburgh, the Pirates seem to like employing Mlodzinski in that long reliever role that was once occupied mostly by Wentz.

It makes sense. All season, the Pirates have tried to extend the work they can get out of Mlodzinski, whose career arc has taken a weird turn this year.

A starter down on the farm after the Pirates drafted him in the first round in 2020, the organization decided his best chance at major league success would be out of the bullpen. So, in 2023, coinciding with a promotion to Triple-A, Mlodzinski pitched as a reliever, and was in the big leagues in a matter of months.

Over 75 games and 86.2 innings during his first two years in the show, Mlodzinski recorded a stellar 2.91 ERA snd 1.223 WHIP. He was one of the more reliable arms in the bullpen each season.

Then, to start 2025, both he and the team decided to experiment with making him a starter again. With Jared Jones lost to injury, Mlodzinski figured into the rotation to open the season.

It was a disaster. Mlodzinski often fared well his first time facing an opposing lineup, but as batters got to see him for a second time, Mlodzinski was knocked around time and time again. It was glaringly obvious that the Pirates were right years ago — his best chance at major league success was indeed in shorter appearances.

Yet, the team persisted with him in the rotation for about a month and a half. In nine starts, Mlodzinski had a 5.67 ERA and 1.613 WHIP. The team went 3-6 with him as a starter, with the Hilton Head native wearing a 1-4 record.

His last start of the major league season saw him go 3.1 innings and give up four runs to the Phillies in Philadelphia. On May 21st, he was optioned to Triple-A, with the Pirates promoting right-hander Mike Burrows to take his spot in the rotation.

Upon arriving in Indianapolis, the team still used him as a starter. In three starts with the Indians, he tossed 15.2 innings of two-run ball, racking up 16 strikeouts in the process.

On June 11th, he was recalled. This time, the Pirates swapped a bullpen arm out, optioning Kyle Nicolas to Indianapolis and bringing up Mlodzinski in his spot.

Even though the club had him continue to start games in Triple-A, Pittsburgh has now used him coming out of the bullpen. That is the best place for him to be.

Using him as a starter was not the way to get more innings and outs from Mlodzinski, but perhaps using him in a long-relief type role is where he can really thrive. He can get you two innings and maybe an extra out or two as well if he’s lucky.

That’s a pretty good option for the Pirates. It allows them to not overwork the bullpen when a starter doesn’t go as long as anticipated, or when the game goes to extras and Kelly has to start cycling through arms.