CHICAGO -- The way Carmen Mlodzinski viewed it, getting a little distance from the Major League game afforded him some elbow room. His goal is to be a Major League starter, but being optioned to the Minors last month meant he had a chance to dive into the data and his mechanics and grow.
There were plenty of takeaways, especially with his pitch usage. The right-hander added the two-seam fastball back to his mix this year, but now he needed to really focus on the lane in which it approached the plate. That pitch is going to do better going in toward left-handed hitters, a potential ball-to-strike offering. The splitter usage probably needed to go up, too, and let’s clean up a few things mechanically, for good measure.
They were adjustments that probably needed to be made but are tough to implement when you’re in a new role in the Majors.
“Having a little bit of room to breathe, that gave me the ability to just go in and sell out for an adjustment, instead of having to worry about like, 'Am I going to be able to throw more strikes with this?' … 'Is this adjustment going to pay off,'” Mlodzinski said pregame Thursday in the Wrigley Field visitor’s clubhouse.
“Having that room to breathe and then going down there and doing it quickly, that's certainly [given] me confidence. Being able to make an adjustment on the fly and have it pay off is important in this game."
Mlodzinski rejoined the Pirates on Wednesday, this time as a bulk reliever rather than as a starter. He did that job well in 2023 and ’24, combining for a 2.91 ERA and 80 strikeouts over 86 2 /3 innings, seemingly giving him a path toward being a leverage reliever if he wanted to continue down that path.
Mlodzinski wanted to start, though, bringing up that point in his exit meetings each year. The Pirates were willing to explore that this spring, and after Jared Jones and Johan Oviedo both went down with injuries, Mlodzinski found himself in the fifth starter spot.
The experiment was bumpy. He didn’t have as much leeway as other starters, often being pulled after two trips through the order, and he pitched to a 1-4 record with a 5.67 ERA. The Pirates optioned him to the Minors in favor of Mike Burrows, with the mindset that he would still be a starter at that time.
The bullpen was still a possibility though, and given he had pitched well with Triple-A Indianapolis, the Pirates made the move.
As manager Don Kelly put it, Mlodzinski can help the team win because he can do “a lot of different things in a lot of different situations.”
“He’s a competitor, man,” Kelly said. “When you see him out there pitching, he’s willing to do whatever to help us win. He’s done a great job for us out of the ’pen, and he did a pretty good job starting, too. And he continues to get better.”
Just because Mlodzinski is back in the bullpen now doesn’t mean the door is closed on him starting down the road. He’s in a very similar spot to Braxton Ashcraft now, a bulk reliever primarily who could potentially find himself in leverage spots at some point this year and theoretically in the rotation later.
With that in mind, there wasn’t a conversation between Mlodzinski and the club about his role the rest of the year.
“They just told me, 'Hey, you're going up,'” Mlodzinski said. “I'm here to help the team any way I can. I'm not the GM. I don't make those decisions, but I can certainly voice this is what I want to do and this is what I'm capable of.
“They didn't say, 'Hey, you're a reliever the rest of your life.' It was, 'We want our best pitchers in the big leagues,' which I understand. Whatever that role is, I'm going to have to take it and do it the best I can."
Starting is his end goal, but that doesn’t mean Mlodzinski is about to pout. Like he said, he’s here to help the team win.
“Obviously nobody wants to be in Triple-A,” Mlodzinski said. “I'd much rather be in the big leagues.”