Is There Cause for Concern with Bubba Chandler?
p/c: Frank Bowen IV
During his tenure as Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, the one thing Ben Cherington has been able to hang his hat on is producing quality pitching talent.
Heading into last offseason, the starting pitching depth consisted of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler, Hunter Barco, Johan Oviedo, and Mike Burrows, with the latter two being traded for bats; Oviedo to the Boston Red Sox to obtain Jhostynxon Garcia, and Burrows to the Houston Astros, as a three-way with the Tampa Bay Rays, for the Pirates to acquire Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum.
Midway through last year, Bubba Chandler became the #2 prospect in baseball, with only Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony being ranked higher.
On August 22nd, the Pirates called up Chandler, who debuted that night tossing four scoreless innings of relief versus the Colorado Rockies at PNC Park. Chandler made some history, as he became the first Pirates pitcher to record a save in his Major League debut.
Through his first seven starts of 2026, there’s been some definite growing pains with Chandler. He currently has a 4.76 ERA, along with a 1.50 WHIP, in large part to issuing the most walks in the National League with 26 (6.9 BB/9).
Chandler has relied on the fastball pretty heavily at 54.4%. His most used secondary pitch is the changeup at 19.9%, followed by his slider and sweeper at 13.7% and 9.2% respectively.
The biggest thing that sticks out to Chandler’s start of the season is the lack of swing and miss with all of his pitches.
Whiff rate
Changeup 29.3%
Slider 25.0%
Sweeper 25.0%
Fastball 22.7%
It’s still early May, so there’s obviously time for Chandler and first-year pitching coach Bill Murphy to get things right. Given how erratic the control numbers have been for the 23-year-old righty, there’s some cause for concern, but perhaps a mechanical adjustment can be made, to have Chandler throwing more strikes. The Pirates clearly aren’t asking for Chandler to be a pinpoint control artist, but improved command will certainly begin to increase the swing and miss of his overall repertoire.
Even with the early struggles of Chandler, the Pirates’ rotation has the fourth lowest ERA in MLB at 3.97. Realistically speaking, it’s not asking much for Chandler to be a mid-three’s ERA starter (3.40-3.70), in his first full season. Again, there has been growing pains for Chandler early on, but the stuff is too good for him just to be a replacement level pitcher.