A supposed team strength became a weakness.
Our 2024 season recaps continue with the bullpen, which was supposed to be a team strength, but struggled.
David Bednar
The Renegade came into the 2024 season as one of Pittsburgh’s most well-regarded players. Coming off of two straight All-Star appearances and also finishing 2023 with the second most saves in baseball with 39, Bednar was supposed to be one of the rocks of the team. Instead, it was just a rocky performance. While still finishing with 23 saves, Bednar was mostly inconsistent. His ERA of 5.77 was his highest as a Pirate. He suffered the most losses of his career with a 3-8 record and also had a career high 7 blown saves, the same total if you combined his blown saves in 2022 and 2023. He had a WHIP of 1.42 and finished the season with a negative WAR. The Bucs might’ve missed their sell-high window on Bednar. Will Bednar and the Pirates avoid arbitration? Will they move him before team control is over after the 2026 season? Is Bednar on his downward slope or was this just a down season coming off of an injury? Plenty of questions to be answered on The Renegade heading into next year.
Aroldis Chapman
This was one of the biggest Pirates acquisitions this past offseason, and while Chapman wasn’t terrible — still showing off that 100mph velocity and finishing with a respectable 3.79 ERA — But he also finished with 5 blown saves. He did have 98 strikeouts in just 61 innings pitched, but he was also incredibly inconsistent, he’ll be 37 before next season, and with an expiring deal and a somewhat disappointing performance, it’d be surprising to see him return in 2025. He simply didn’t live up to expectations.
Colin Holderman
Holderman got off to a pretty good start for the Buccos, and he finished with a pretty good stat line — a 3.16 ERA, 56 strikeouts in 51 innings, a second-on-the-team 21 holds, and a positifve WAR — but he was also at the helm for several brutal bullpen implosions, finished with just a 3-6 record, and also racked up a career-high 5 blown saves. As the season wore on, he seemed to get worse. Holderman came over from the New York Mets in the Daniel Vogelbach deal and is under team control for at least another season. Because he’s cheap, he’s likely back next season.
Kyle Nicolas
Nicolas was third in bullpen innings on the team, behind Chapman and Bednar, as the 25-year-old had 51 appearances and 54 innings pitched. And it would have been more without the injury. Nicolas has a heavy four-seamer that he throws a lot, and it helped translate to 55 strikeouts in his relief role. He finished with a 3.95 ERA, a WHIP of 1.50, and a WAR of +0.2, but those are hardly stellar numbers. But it was just his second crack at the Major League roster, so the former second round pick likely gets another shot at it next season.
Carmen Mlodzinski
The 25-year-old Mlodzinksi had a second straight decent year for the Bucs, finishing with a 3.38 ERA and a WHIP of 1.15 to go along with a 5-5 record and 5 holds. He has a pretty nice sinking fastball, but is not an overpowering pitcher, finishing with 46 Ks in 50 innings pitched. He’s another cheap, young arm, meaning the organization likely has a role for him again in 2025, and hopefully they continue to get some performance from him in the middle relief role.
Hunter Stratton
Stratton pitched 37 innings of relief for the Buccos last season, finishing with a 3.58 ERA, a WHIP of 1.17 along with 5 holds and 2 blown saves. But the 27-year-old ruptered his patella tendon towards the end of the year and is now out for a minimum of 7 to 10 months to heal, meaning his 2025 season is completely up in the air.
Dennis Santana
The Bucs signed Santana off of waivers in June from the New York Yankees, and that proved to be a good decision. Santana finished the year with a 2.44 ERA, a WHIP of 0.92 along with 11 holds, no blown saves and 50 Ks in 44 innings pitched. He had some top numbers vs, hard contact, finishing in the 95th percentile in exit velocity and with a chase rate of over 36 percent. Santana was one of the best pickups of the year for the Bucs, gradually earning more trust over the season, and particulalry with the injury to Stratton, seems poised to have a bigger role in 2025.
Notes: Luis Ortiz also pitched some games out of the pen, but was covered with our starters, and plenty of other relievers saw minimal action, including Josh Fleming, Ryan Borucki and Jalen Beeks.