Perrotto: Mike Burrows Gets Chance Earlier Than Expected

As Mike Burrows gets set to make his second career start, he hopes to build on the first one.

The Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander will face the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight in the middle game of a three-game at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Burrows made his initial MLB start and second career appearance last Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park, allowing four runs in five innings. He allowed four hits, struck out three, and walked two.

It wasn’t a good outing. However, after giving up four runs in the first two innings – including home runs to Christian Yelich and Joey Ortiz — Burrows shut out the Brewers over his last three innings.

“He battled in there,” Pirates catcher Joey Bart said. “I felt like they obviously took advantage of some big swings that didn’t go our way, but I felt like he competed. He just got behind (in the count) a little bit. It’s tough to pitch from behind. He’ll be back out there, and he’ll be better.”

The 25-year-old Burrows was having a good season at Triple-A Indianapolis. He had a 2-1 record and a 2.51 ERA in eight games, including seven starts, while striking out 41 in 32.1 innings.

“Just settling in and pitching rather than throwing,” Burrows said of his Triple-A success. “I think that was the biggest thing, just realizing we have the stuff to pitch off the fastball and just move it around and make pitches.”

Burrows is also now two years removed from Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery in 2023.

“I finally feel like the arm’s coming back alive and the body’s feeling (good) since surgery,” Burrows said.

Burrows took the rotation spot of Carmen Mlodzinski, who was optioned to Indianapolis after going 1-4 with a 5.67 ERA in nine starts.

Mlodzinski being removed from the rotation was warranted. However, the better move would have been to add him to the bullpen after he compiled a 2.91 ERA in his two MLB seasons in 70 relief appearances and five games as an opener.

Yet that was not the move general manager Ben Cherington made.

“As we’ve talked about before, he had been advocating for himself (to be a starter) for a couple of years now and convinced us at the end of last season that he was prepared to do the work necessary in the offseason to give himself a chance to do that,” Cherington said. “We wanted to give him that opportunity. We felt like he did that coming into spring training. It felt like he earned that spot.”

Another logical move would have been to promote Bubba Chandler, the organization’s top prospect, from Indianapolis to take Mlodzinski’s rotation spot. Chandler is 2-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 10 starts and allowed only one hit in 6.2 innings in his most recent start.

What the Pirates are doing with Chandler is obvious, though unspoken. They are trying to limit his MLB service time to delay his eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency by one year.

Burrows deserves an opportunity, though not before Chandler.

“Really just about what he’s done,” Cherington said of Burrows’ promotion, “I think coming out of spring training, some specific challenges and goals were put in front of him. He’s attacked those. He’s been building up his volume while he’s been attacking the development goals.”

Now, Burrows is getting a chance to carry that to the big-league level, benefitting from a season when the Pirates have put logic on the shelf.