{"id":121948,"date":"2026-05-15T18:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=121948"},"modified":"2026-05-15T18:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:54:17","slug":"pirates-jared-jones-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/15\/pirates-jared-jones-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Jones Makes It Clear What Role He Wants to Pitch in for the Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Pittsburgh Pirates are nearing the return of a significant pitcher to their depth chart. Right-hander <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=jones-008jar\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Jones<\/a> has started his rehab and is eligible to return from the injured list during the last week of May. Jones underwent<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/21\/pirates-pitcher-jared-jones-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\"> internal brace surgery<\/a> in May 2025 and hasn\u2019t pitched in an MLB game since his 2024 rookie season. However, Jones seems to have put to rest any questions regarding what sort of role he\u2019ll slot into upon his return.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Jared Jones is confident about slipping back into the Pirates&#8217; rotation.<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jared Jones was asked tonight if he&#8217;d work out of the bullpen when he returns to the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what he had to say \ud83d\udc47 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9H0JNacW7V\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/9H0JNacW7V<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Riley Holsinger (@HolsingerRiley) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HolsingerRiley\/status\/2054381951478350014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jones quickly shrugged off the idea of pitching out of the bullpen once he returns to the Major Leagues in a recent interview. His answer also rubbed some fans the wrong way, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gbrowniepoints\/status\/2054665371274088850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pirates announcer Greg Brown stated on Twitter\/X<\/a> that Jones did not want to answer any questions about the near-term future, only about the present situation. However, Jones\u2019 confidence is always a good sign.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Jared Jones Wants To Be a Starter, and for a Good Reason<\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jones wants to remain in the rotation, and it\u2019s certainly not without merit. The right-hander became one of the best pitching prospects in baseball heading into 2024 and showed off plenty of potential on the mound. He turned in a 4.14 ERA, 4.00 FIP, and 1.19 WHIP over 121.2 innings pitched. Jones induced a healthy amount of strikeouts with a 26.2% K%, and only walked 7.7% of batters faced. Hard contact and home runs were his biggest weaknesses, with a 1.32 HR\/9 ratio, 27th percentile exit velocity (89.6 MPH), and 14th percentile barrel rate (9.8%).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Plenty of numbers under the hood suggested Jones could have been even better and suffered from some bad luck. He had both a sub-4.00 xFIP (3.78) and SIERA (3.72). He showed high-quality stuff and command on the mound, with a 104 FanGraphs Stuff+ and 106 Location+. Jones\u2019 97.3 MPH fastball velocity sat in the 93rd percentile of pitchers during 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">His rehab is off to as good a start as possible. Jones has pitched ten innings over three starts. In that time, he has allowed just one earned run, struck out 11 batters, and only one batter has reached via a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">free<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> pass. The long layoff and elbow surgery have not negatively impacted his velocity. If anything, he is throwing harder than before, sitting 98.9 MPH with his four-seamer. The right-hander has hit 100+ MPH on nine occasions thus far.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How Jones Fits Into the Pirates\u2019 Rotation<\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There is an obvious spot in the Pirates\u2019 rotation for Jones to fill, as <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mlodzca01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmen Mlodzinski<\/a> will likely move to the bullpen. The right-hander has made seven starts in nine <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">appearances<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and has produced mixed results. Although he has a mediocre 4.40 ERA and 1.44 WHIP, he also has a strong 2.98 FIP, with a quality 3.71 xFIP and 3.82 SIERA. His 21.8% K% and 8.1% BB% are both about league average. Despite a below-average 92.2 MPH exit velocity and 8.1% barrel rate, Mlodzinski only has a 0.40 HR\/9 ratio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> marks the second time the Pirates tried to use Mlodzinski as a starter with unimpressive results. While his results this year are better than when the Pirates tried this last year, he is still struggling with similar issues, like facing the order a second or third time. Mlodzinski turned in excellent results as a multi-inning reliever. The right-hander owned a 2.12 ERA, 2.65 FIP, and 1.10 WHIP throughout his final 59.1 innings of the year. Mlodzinski struck out just over a quarter of batters with a 25.5% K%, and only dished out a free pass 6.3% of the time. He excelled at limiting home runs and quality contact with a 0.46 HR\/9 ratio and 4.4% barrel rate.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Jones Needs Mlodzinski<\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/22\/pirates-need-to-consider-using-carmen-mlodzinski-differently\/\" target=\"_self\">Mlodzinski moving to the bullpen<\/a> will also significantly help Jones. Jones will more than likely be on a workload limit. After all, this will be his first time pitching in a Major League game since September 2024. He has also never pitched more than 130 innings in a single season, with his career innings high coming in 2023 at 126.1 IP. Mlodzinski can supplement innings when Jones has thrown a lot of pitches early in a game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBzpR3KQXY\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4774px; aspect-ratio: 4774\/3184;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jones is confidently ready to step back into the Pirates\u2019 rotation. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/22\/pirates-jared-jones-mid-season-addition\/\" target=\"_self\">His presence in the pitching staff could be huge for the Bucs as we approach the summer months<\/a>. He flashed a ton of promise during his rookie year. Now, the Pirates will add another flamethrower with plenty of upside to the back of their rotation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates are nearing the return of a significant pitcher to their depth chart. Right-hander Jared Jones has started his rehab and is eligible to return from the injured list during the last week of May. Jones underwent internal brace surgery in May 2025 and hasn\u2019t pitched in an MLB game since his 2024 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5765,"featured_media":121988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"721","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,35,26],"tags":[3632,3718],"class_list":["post-121948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-pirates","tag-carmen-mlodzinski","tag-jared-jones"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121989,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121948\/revisions\/121989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}