August 22: Pittsburgh officially selected Chandlers contract. They already had two openings on the 40-man roster. August 20: The Pirates are promoting top pitching prospect to the major leagues, according to a report from . that Chandlers contract will be selected to the roster on Friday, while that Chandler will pitch in a long relief role. Its a long-awaited promotion for Chandler, who entered the season viewed as a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport and on the shortlist for the leagues very best pitching prospects. The 22-year-old hurler reached the Triple-A level last year and opened eyes with a brilliant 1.83 ERA in seven starts where he struck out 34.0% of batters faced, and that led many to speculate upon whether or not Chandler would be brought up to the majors early in the 2025 campaign or perhaps even join the clubs Opening Day rotation. Thats not the route that Pittsburgh decided to take. Chandler has spent the entire 2025 campaign at Triple-A to this point and will now will only get promoted to the majors for the final weeks of the season. The right-hander did everything he could to force the i sue early in the season, with a sterling 2.03 ERA and a 35.0% strikeout rate in 11 starts through the end of May. His call to the majors never came, however, and Chandler began to struggle as the summer began. Since June began, Chandler has struggled to a 5.96 ERA due in part to vanishing command. Hes struck out just 22.1% of his opponents during that time while walking a hefty 13.1%. A .377 BABIP since the start of June is surely the culprit for at least some of those struggles, however, and its also po sible that the challenge of a new level could help invigorate Chandler upon his arrival Willie Mays Jersey to the majors. After all, this is the same prospect who dominated Triple-A to the tune of a 1.94 ERA, 2.79 FIP, and 34.6% strikeout rate acro s his first 18 starts at the level. High as the right-handers upside clearly appears to be, however, his recent struggles cant be ignored. Perhaps thats why the Pirates will look to ease him into the majors with a bullpen role to start off his big league career. Its hardly an unprecedented path for even a potential star player to take. and, more recently, both spent years pitching out of the bullpen before moving into the rotation and becoming the ace-level arms we know today. That doesnt appear to be the plan for Chandler, of course, as writes that the Pirates view Chandler as a starter long-term and he could get starts at the big league level later this year. Future Hall of Famer served as a swing man for the Diamondbacks during his first year in the big leagues, while current rookies like , , and have also broken into the majors by starting out in a hybrid role between starting and relief work. Thats also true for a few of Chandlers Pirates teammates like and . Chandlers impending ascension to the major leagues brings together Pittsburghs fleet of young starting pitchers. Led by likely NL Cy Young award winner , the Pirates 2026 rotation figures to feature Ashcraft, Chandler, and as young, talented arms who have yet to reach arbitration. Its a highly talented, exciting group of arms that should be a strong basis for a contending team, but if the 2025 season has been any indication the club will need to a semble a much better lineup than what theyve put together this year if they hope to compete with the rest of the NL Central for a playoff spot. is a toolsy player with star upside, and perhaps will rebound from his down season in order to put up the solidly above-average numbers fans in Pittsburgh have grown to expect from him. Outside of that duo, however, there isnt much to get excited about. While top prospect turned heads in the lower minors earlier this year, hes only just made his debut at Double-A and isnt especially likely to debut next year. If the team is to compete next year, the team will either need ma sive steps forward from under-performing young players like , , and or theyll need to make meaningful external additions to the lineup via either trade or free agency. Strong performances from young arms like Chandler and Ashcraft down the stretch this year could go a long way to convincing Pittsburgh bra s that now is the time to make a significant investment in short-term competitivene s. For now, however, the focus will simply be on getting Chandler acclimated to the majors in his first few weeks as a big league player. The Pirates have space on their 40-man roster already, so theyll only need to make an active roster move in order to bring Chandler into the fold later this week. Though Chandler struggled a bit in the summer, thats surely not the only factor that went into the timing of this promotion. At this point in the schedule, its no longer po sible for a player with no major league experience to accrue 45 days of service time before the season is done. That means a prospect promoted now will still be a rookie going into 2026, as long as his club limits him to fewer than 50 innings pitched or 130 at-bats. Thats notable in this era of baseball, with the prospect promotion incentive. The PPI rules are designed to reward clubs who promote top prospects for an entire season, or enough of a season for the player to earn a full year of service time. As such, teams will often target these promotions so that the player will keep that rookie status going into the following season. To qualify, a player needs to begin a season on two of the top 100 lists from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and ESPN. As mentioned, Chandler is already a consensus top-20 prospect in the league. If the Pirates keep him under 50 innings this year and then put him on their 2026 Opening Day roster, he will be PPI eligible. He will then earn the Pirates an extra draft pick if he wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in Cy Young or MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons. Since the Pirates arent competing here in 2025, they didnt have much incentive to bring up Chandler in the summer, apart from starting the proce s of him getting acclimated to the big leagues. By waiting until now, they are giving Chandler le s big league time in 2025 but will keep that potential extra draft pick in play for future seasons. The Pirates arent the only club to follow this playbook. The Mets recently promoted . The Orioles called up and . Surely, other top prospects will get the call in the coming days and weeks. Tj Hopkins Jersey
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