Pirates promote highly-regarded pitching prospect Thomas Harrington to start against Tampa Bay

Harrington only pitched in eight games about Double-A before making his debut at 23 years old five games into the season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have called up one of their top prospects to make his MLB debut on Tuesday.

Right-handed pitching prospect Thomas Harrington has been recalled to start against the Tampa Bay Rays. Harrington, 23, is the No. 78 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and nearly made the team out of spring training.

To make room on the active and 40-man roster, the Pirates optioned closer David Bednar to Triple-A and DFA’d catcher Jason Delay. Harrington will wear No. 78 like he did in spring training.

Carmen Mlodzinski ultimately made the team over Harrington, but the right-hander from Campbell started the Bucs final spring game of the season.

Harrington pitched two years in the minors with the Pirates after being selected 36th overall in 2022.

Tuesday will be his 2025 organizational debut outing after not pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis during its opening weekend.

Harrington rocketed through the minors and only made eight starts in Indy prior to his promotion.

In 13 games (12 starts) with Double-A Altoona, the 6-foot-2 righty posted a 2.24 ERA, .227 opponent batting average, 1.00 WHIP, and 74 strikeouts over 68.1 innings.

He parlayed his success into eight outings spanning 46 innings with Indianapolis, earning a lower opponent average (.212) and WHIP (0.93), plus eight walks and 38 strikeouts. Harrington only walked 18 batters over 114.1 innings over the two levels.

He’s more of a control and location pitcher than a power arm like Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, or Bubba Chandler, sitting 93-95 mph with his fastball.

The Pirates No. 3 prospect owns a 55-grade fastball, slider, and splitter in his five-pitch repertoire. The Sanford, North Carolina native also registers with 60-grade control and is rated with a 55 overall grade.

Harrington will start for the Bucs opposite former Pirates prospect Shane Baz at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Rays are playing with Tropicana Field’s roof damaged, at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday.