‘I’ll Cherish It Forever,’ Bubba Chandler’s Much-Anticipated Debut Worth the Wait

Danny Demilio   |  

Aug 22, 2025

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PITTSBURGH — Bubba Chandler had to wait a little longer than he would have liked to make his major-league debut, but his first time stepping onto the PNC Park mound was worth the delay. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates promoted Chander, who is considered one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, to the big leagues ahead of Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies.

Chandler covered the final four innings of the Pirates’ 9-0 win, becoming the first Pirate and the fourth player to record a four-inning save in his MLB debut. 

“That was cool. When I came out of the eighth, I was kind of thinking, ‘Gosh, I really hope they let me go one more. That would be great.’ I didn’t know it was a save opportunity, but I was like, ‘I really want to finish this thing out. That would be the cherry on top.’ When I walked in, [pitching coach Oscar Marin] was like, ‘Hey, one more. Let’s go.’ I was like, yeah, let’s go.”

Chandler reliever Braxton Ashcraft, who threw five-excellent innings and got the win for the Pirates. When Chandler’s name was announced by public address announcer Guy Junker over the speakers at PNC Park, the 22,886 fans in attendance enthusiastically cheered for the promising rookie.

“It was great. Everything you could imagine,” Chandler said outside his locker after the win. “Like I said, they said my name and major league debut, this is kind of all I remember and then I blacked out in the first inning but I just kind of heard the place go crazy. I had to turn my PitchCom up because I just couldn’t hear what Henry was putting down. That was really cool. I’ll never forget. I’ll cherish it forever.”

Rockies eight-hole hitter Orlando Arcia welcomed Chandler to the big-leagues by hitting a double off the left-field fence to open the sixth. But Chandler left him stranded by retiring the next three batters, including a strikeout of Mickey Moniak on a 100.4 mph fastball to end the inning. 

Chandler was visibly fired up as he walked off the mound with his first big-league inning under his belt 

“He’s passionate. He’s got that kind of energy,” said manager Don Kelly. “He pitches with that energy, which is really cool to see. The stuff is there.”

After emphatically escaping a jam in the sixth inning, Chandler proceeded to throw three more scoreless innings to preserve the win. He allowed a pair of hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out three across his four innings. 

“Got some good results. I think I threw a lot of pitches that kind of got away from me but at the same time they were in the zone, they were ripped and executed and hitting’s hard. I try not to overcomplicate it as much as some would,” he said on his debut. “I threw  a lot of good pitches. I threw some pitches I wish we had back but yeah, overall can’t complain about however many innings I threw and them being scoreless.”

It was a different situation than the one Chandler grew accustomed to during his professional career. Of his 89 minor-league appearances, 83 had been starts, including each of his 24 outings this season. 

But the Pirates will use Chandler as a bulk reliever initially with the goal of eventually going back to a full-time starter. The Pirates’ decision led to Chandler getting his first save before his first win, something he never thought would happen.

“Yeah, it didn’t even cross my mind,” Chandler said. “I’d relieved a couple times but I think I’ve started 80-some games in the minor leagues. So you know you think coming up, you’re going to be a starter and you’re going to start. But when they told me I was coming up, it was ‘cool, I don’t care if I’m batboy, whatever.’ I just want to be here and I want to help the team win and hopefully I did that.”

If you asked Chandler, he would tell you he would have wanted to be up earlier in the year. He was named the International League Pitcher of the Month for April with Triple-A Indianapolis. After a solid May, the 22-year-old hit a rough patch during the summer months, pushing his debut back towards the end of August.

In the end, things all worked out, and Chandler got to live out his long-awaited dream.

“You can only try and control what you can control,” he explained. “I think the Pirates have a very good plan for every single person in this clubhouse, every single person in this organization and you know, you can complain all you want. 

“In the end I’m here, in the big leagues. There’s not a lot of 22-year-old kids that get to do this. I’m grateful. I was mad, yeah, whatever. But at the same time I didn’t need to take care of what I needed to take care of, so that falls back on me. Now I’m here. Don’t care.”