The Pittsburgh Pirates are all down in Bradenton, and in just a few days, spring training baseball will officially get underway.

Few sports can pull off interesting preseasons, but the arrival of the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues are celebrated among baseball fans who endure long winters without the American pastime.

For the Pirates, a lot of new faces are walking around Pirate City, including Marcell Ozuna, Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, and others. They’ll blend with less proven players like Jhostynxon “The Password” Garcia, Rafael Flores, and Nick Yorke.

It seems like every year, we get a few spring training performances that are truly absurd. Given that a decent amount of the pitching is coming from guys in the bottom rungs of minor league baseball, it’s not all that surprising to see some big-time bats steamroll their way through the spring.

But even then, sometimes we get numbers that were unexpected. Yesterday, I looked at performances by batters. Today, my eye is on the mound.

Ryan Borcuki, 2025

Once a starter in the big leagues with Toronto, Borcuki’s stock had fallen and his career was in need of a resurgence. He found that in Pittsburgh, where in 2023 he tossed 40.1 innings out of the bullpen with a 2.45 ERA, 0.744 WHIP, and 8.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season.

But in 2024, a poor start and injuries tanked his season, setting up a possible redemption season this past season. The crafty left-hander pitched 9.2 innings for the Pirates, his only run against coming off a solo-shot home run. He held opponents to five hits and five walks, while racking up 14 strikeouts. Borucki was the only spring training arm to pitch more than eight innings and keep his ERA under 1.00.

With that solid spring performance and a major league résumé behind him, Borucki earned a bullpen job heading into last season. He totaled 30.2 innings out of the pen, but struggled to a 5.28 ERA, 1.239 WHIP, and 2.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

He missed about a month and a half with injury, but after coming back in August, he only survived six games before he was designated for assignment by the Pirates. In Septmeber, landed back in Toronto for a brief reunion tour at the end of the season.