Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call: Will Bucs be fine with Brault and Glasnow in pen?

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

As the Bucs get ready for the holidays and all is quiet on the hot stove front, it looks more and more that the Pirates could do very little and it also looks more and more that either Steven Brault or Tyler Glasnow, maybe both, could open up the season in the Pirates bullpen.

The question that needs to be asked is whether or not that is good both pitchers?

Could it benefit either guy to spend another season in Triple-A as a starter or would they benefit more from facing major league hitters in a relief role?

Both Brault and Glasnow are coming off seasons in which they dominated as starters at Indianapolis.

However baring a Gerrit Cole trade, the Pirates rotation to start the season is all but set with Cole, Jameson Taillon, Ivan Nova, Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl.

Naturally a Cole trade opens up a spot and the Pirates could still look to fill that buy signing a cheap starter or bringing one in via trade.

That leaves both Brault and Glasnow in limbo in terms of becoming a major league starting pitcher.

Brault to the pen makes sense right now in terms of he would be the second left-hander, along with closer Felipe Rivero.

The 25-year old Brault was named the Pirates minor league pitcher of the year after posting a 1.95 ERA in 2017, but had just a 4.67 ERA in 34.2 innings with the Pirates once called up.

I like the idea of Brault joining the pen and think he is a lock to start the season there, barring a trade or injury to one of the starters in spring training.

As for Glasnow, his troubles as a starter at the MLB level are well documented.

But the path to him earning a spot on the Opening Day roster could be a bit tougher. It could be a numbers crunch as the likes of: Dovydas Neverauskas, A.J. Schugel, Daniel Hudson, Edgar Santana and George Kontos are all right-handed options out of the pen. Throw in the fact that Johnny Barbato is also on the 40-man roster and Jordan Milbrath was just selected in the Rule 5 Draft and there doesn’t seem to be a spot for Glasnow.

However despite his struggles, he could be intriguing as a late-inning reliever down the line, but we will have to wait and see how that plays out.

Don’t rule either out as a starter though as the Bucs used only seven starters last season and that isn’t likely to happen again this season.

At the end of the day though, neither Brault nor Glasnow can accomplish much more at the minor-league level and have to start contributing for the big club.

For the next month and a half or so everyone will be keeping an eye what moves the Pirates make, but it may be just as interesting to see what they have planned for the guys they already have.

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