It’s official. Tonight, Jared Jones takes the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time in 20 months, returning to Major League Baseball after recovering from UCL surgery.

The 24-year-old, who made 22 starts in his rookie year, pitched to a 4.14 ERA, 1.192 WHIP, and 3.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio with a 6-8 record.

Following an arm injury suffered before the start of the regular season last year, Jones missed the entirety of the 2025 season and has spent the first months of the 2026 campaign slowly working his way back.

Now, he’s re-joining a rotation that looks a lot different. Jones, whose time in the majors predates everyone in the rotation not named Mitch Keller, will now start alongside new starters Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler. Carmen Mlodzinski, who took Jones’ spot in the rotation to open the year, has since been bumped back to the bullpen.

And as the right-hander prepares to return tonight against his former manager in Derek Shelton and the Minnesota Twins, I figured now was the best time to recap his entire rehab stint and look at some takeaways from his nearly 20 innings in the minor leagues.

Like most arms working their way back from a lengthy absence, Jones made his return to professional baseball with Pittsburgh’s Low-A affiliate in Bradenton. For Jones, it was sort of like returning to the scene of the crime; Jones’ injury first arose in spring training back in 2025, when the Pirates were warming up in Bradenton.

On April 29th, he took the ball for the Marauders where he pitched three efficient innings against the Lakeland Flying Tigers. He faced the minimum and struck out five, all of them swinging Ks. Eight of his strikes were called looking as well.

As one might expect, his pitch count was kept rather low in his first start back. Jones tossed just 41 pitches, with 30 total strikes.

A week later, he was transferred to Triple-A Indianapolis for his second rehab start. Facing much stiffer competition in the highest level of minor league ball, Jones was knocked around a little bit while pitching for the Indians. He went three up, three down in the first inning, before Omaha was able to rack up a few hits him in the second.

Following his only two strikeouts of the game, the Storm Chasers notched back-to-back singles before Indianapolis was able to get out of it. In the third, former Pirate Kevin Newman led off with a single, and even though he was out at second on a force out, Omaha still kept a runner on first. Another single and a walk later, Jones had the bases loaded.

To his credit, Jones was able to escape with just one run charged against him, but it was enough to be charged with the loss as Indianapolis was shut out 5-0. His pitch count was upped to 54, with 35 pitches accounting for strikes. He posted six looking strikes and seven swinging strikes. Though he had just two strikeouts, he induced eight groundballs.

He was transferred down a level to Double-A, in part due to the projected weather forecast in Indianapolis.

Back with the Curve, Jones rebounded for four innings of shutout ball against Harrisburg. Jones allowed a leadoff single to Seaver King (who recorded two of the three hits against Jones) to open the ballgame, but Jones didn’t allow more than one hit in any of the innings he tossed.

Jones recorded four strikeouts, all via swinging (including a foul tip strikeout) over 14 batters faced. He had eight strikes looking and six strikes swinging, but his pitch count was actually two lower than his last start, at 52.

Five days later, Jones made another start in Altoona, going a rehab-high 4.1 innings against Harrisburg again. This time, the Senators were able to get to him a little bit easier. It was smooth sailing for three, with Jones facing the minimum through three with five strikeouts, including K’ing the side in the first.

In the fourth, King knocked another hit off Jones and issued his first walk of the day to put runners on first and second. He was able to escape unscathed, but ran into more trouble in the fifth. He surrendered a leadoff single before a wild pitch advanced the runner to second, and a walk put two on. A flyout to right put runners on the corners, before the dam broke and Jones allowed a run off a hit to left field.

After that, he was swapped out, eventually charged with two earned runs through 4.1 innings. He finished with seven strikeouts, nine looking strikes and 12 swinging strikes. His pitch count spiked to 67, a sign of the continued build up of his arm.

A week ago, Jones made his final rehab start, heading back up to Indianapolis against Toledo. Now, while this last start was his last on the road back to Pittsburgh, it wasn’t exactly the best final impression.

He opened the game with a hit by pitch, followed by a walk. Two groundouts later resulted in three outs, but the troubles would persist for Jones in this Indy game. In the fourth, he surrendered the only home run of this rehab stint, giving up a solo shot to Eduardo Valencia. Then in the fifth, he left runners on first and second via a single and walk before he was replaced.

Both runners made it home, charged to Jones for a three-ER day. Now in fairness, perhaps Jones could have gotten out of that jam, we’ll never know. But while the six strikeouts were good, three hits, a couple of hits, a hit by pitch, and multiple runs against him wasn’t the most inspiring.

What was encouraging, however, was Jones hurling 76 pitches. That was by far his highest this season, and the closest he has got to pitching at a major league-workload.

That is probably the reference point the Pirates and manager Don Kelly will use for Jones in his first start back in the bigs. For one, the Pirates plan on Jones chipping in as a starter for the rest of the season, so they will likely want to cautiously work him back into a full-time groove.

In addition, Jones was never a pitcher who routinely tossed a ton. In 2024, Jones hit 100 pitches just once and cleared 90 pitches eight of his 22 starts. He averaged just a hair under 87 pitches a start. He found a way to make it work; half of his starts went at least six innings, and only five times did he fail to accomplish five innings of work.

But don’t be surprised if he gets a bit of a quick hook (at least, in comparison to other starters) during his first few starts back. With Mlodzinski in the bullpen as well, the ex-starter can likely piggyback off Jones as well.