Over the last couple of seasons the starting pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates have grown into some of the best pitchers in baseball and have cemented themselves as one of the best overall units. Between strong scouting, good use of draft picks and player development, the Pirates have established themselves as an organization with a knack for creating a strong rotation.
The Pirates offseason strategy in recent years has been reliant primarily on the draft and not in free-agency or on the trade market. With this being the case, the crop of pitchers they have are all home grown talent. Mitch Keller serves as the veteran of 2026’s rotation, was drafted back in 2014, and made his MLB debut in 2019. Keller was drafted by Joe DelliCarri who ran the Pirates’ drafts from 2013-2023. DelliCarri was the Senior Director of Amateur Scouting before being promoted to Vice President of Scouting, and had a hand in selecting every one of the pitchers in Pittsburgh’s rotation, to include Jared Jones who is currently on rehab assignment.
In that 10-year span DelliCarri and the Pirates selected several of the best pitchers in baseball. Keller in 2014 was just the start as Braxton Ashcraft was drafted in 2018, Jared Jones was a second round pick in 2020, Bubba Chandler was selected in the third in 2021 and Paul Skenes was taken first overall in 2023. Carmen Mlodzinski who has seen work as a starter off and on in his career was selected by the Pirates in 2020.
To be clear, those are just the names that have seen consistent Major League action, because there are several names in the organizations top 30 prospect list that were also drafted in that span. Hunter Barco has been up and down and has been primarily used as a bullpen pitcher was drafted by the organization in 2022 is Pittsburgh’s third highest ranking prospect. Thomas Harrington is in Triple-A and is the organization’s 12th highest ranked prospect was picked in 2022, while Low-A 13th ranked hurler Levi Sterling was selected in 2024. Kristian Curtis was picked in 2023 and is the 21st highest ranked prospect for the Pirates and the 23rd overall prospect for Pittsburgh, Zander Mueth, was selected in 2023 by the club.
In 2024, following the promotion of DelliCarri, the Pirates hired Justin Horowitz to be their director of amateur scouting. Horowitz oversaw the Pirates’ draft from 2024-2025 before taking a job with the Washington Nationals to be their Assistant General Manager. While with the Pirates, Horowitz selected Sterling in 2024 and then in 2025 he drafted Seth Hernandez. In his first season of professional baseball Hernandez has blossomed into Pittsburgh’s top prospect, the third highest rated prospect in baseball and the best pitching prospect in baseball.
2025 was a breakout season for Pittsburgh’s pitchers. The Pirate’s led Major League Baseball in shutouts with 19, while allowing the third fewest home runs of any team. The Pirates also ranked tied for fourth in WHIP (1.22), and seventh-best in ERA (3.76). Skenes was named to his second All-Star game and won the NL-Cy-Young award.
The Pirates in the span that DelliCarri has been with the organization has also had a fairly consistent cast of pitching coaches. Oscar Marin was hired by manager Derek Shelton prior to the 2020 season to be the team’s pitching coach. Marin had previously worked with the Texas Rangers as a bullpen coach and two previous years in Seattle serving as a minor league pitching coordinator. For five seasons, Marin helped to develop what are now some of the top pitchers in baseball, but was ultimately not brought back following the 2025 season, with pitchers citing that they thought they were not getting all they could from his coaching.
With the departure of Marin Pittsburgh went out and signed some top tier pedigree talent in pitching coach Bill Murphy. With the Houston Astros Murphy started as a rookie ball pitching coach, but was brought onto the major league staff in 2019 as a pitching coordinator. In 2021, Murphy was named the assistant pitching coach and helped the Astros win a World-Series title in 2022. While under Murphy, Houston led MLB in ERA (3.61) and the club finished eighth in team pitching WAR (18.0) in his last season with the club.
In his first season with Pittsburgh, Murphy and the Pirates currently rank in the top 10 in baseball for K/9 (10), HR/9 (4), BABIP (10), HR/FB (3) and WAR (7). The Pirates also have the 11th lowest ERA in baseball (3.86). Paul Skenes leads the staff as he is currently tied with eight other pitchers for the most wins in baseball with 6, and is 11th in K/9, first in BB/9, second in BABIP and seventh in WAR.
Overall, the organization hasn’t had the results in the win column that fans would like, but it is undeniable that they built one of the best rotations in baseball and have several more young pitchers waiting in the wings.
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