Suddenly, the Pittsburgh Pirates have tremendous starting pitching depth

Despite it not appearing so for the Pittsburgh Pirates at the beginning of the season, suddenly the team has extraordinary starting pitching depth.

At the beginning of the season, the Pirates seemed to lack starting pitching depth. Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, Juan Nicasio, Jeff Locke, and Jon Niese made up the rotation, and Ryan Vogelsong was the next man up working out of the bullpen. Despite seemingly set at the major league level, the starting rotation in the minors posed some issues for the major league club. While the rotation was going to arguably be one of the best the Pirates would see at the Triple-A level in a very long time, none of the starters was major league ready. Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon were the part of the future in Pittsburgh, but both needed at least half a year of seasoning in Triple-A before hitting the major league level. Chad Kuhl and Steven Brault were both mid-tier prospects but neither had pitched at the Triple-A level before this season. Wilfredo Boscan was 26 years old but had never pitched in the majors. Trevor Williams looked like the best starting depth option, but he had also never pitched in the majors.

The Pirates had to essentially survive half a season with six reasonable starting pitching options at the major league level. If multiple guys got injured, the team could suffer immensely. This was not ideal, not only in case on injuries, but also because the rotation didn’t look formidable. Nicasio was a big if as a starter, Locke had been going downhill for the past two seasons, and Niese was an average starter at best.

Luckily, the Pirates did manage to survive, at least until June. Only Cole hit the disabled list, and despite every other starter struggling, the Pirates hovered above or around .500. By the time the Pirates needed replacements in the rotation, the minor league guys were ready. Trevor Williams had the worst ERA of the Indy rotation at 3.97, and, as a whole, the rotation at Triple-A was pitching extremely well.

Jameson Taillon was the first Indy member to get the call, and has pitched to a 3.80 in five starts before he hit the DL. Wilfredo Boscan was next and has been the only Indy call-up to truly struggle in his time up. Chad Kuhl has a 4.09 ERA in two major league starts, and Steven Brault gave up just one earned run in his only start. And Tyler Glasnow was pitching well in his major league debut until he was pulled with runners on base and Arquimedes Caminero gave up a three-run home run.

The second half rotation for the Pirates is still a bit of a question. There may not be an ideal five-man setup for the team to go with. And we all know the upside of Taillon and Glasnow. But the importance of seeing that Kuhl and Brault could at least answer the bell this season if needed should make the Pirates confident moving forward of the depth they have at Triple-A. Heck, even Ryan Vogelsong has pitched to a 3.74 ERA as both a spot starter and a reliever. What once seemed like an issue at the beginning of the year has developed into a position of strength for the Pirates, which could be a major factor for the team as it makes its playoff push in the second half of the year.

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