Bubba Chandler Showed Resiliency In Challenging 2023

Righty tackled each challenge faced in 2023 and came out ahead.

From the moment that the Pirates drafted him in the third round and gave him a $3 million signing bonus, Bubba Chandler has been one of the most polarizing prospects in the system.

One of the reasons for his instant recognition was the fact he was going to be given a chance to play in the minors as a two-way player, something that obviously we don’t see often once we get into pro ball. 

He did both while in the Complex League and Single-A Bradenton, and while he showed some power in his bat, it was clear that the potential was shifted towards him being on the mound.

So, entering the 2023 season, the Pirates decided to have him focus solely on pitching for the first time in his life. For someone who was so confident about his abilities to do both, it had to have been a big blow having part of his game taken away from him.

“It’s a huge adjustment for him,” Greensboro Manager Robby Hammock said of Chandler only pitching in 2023. “It’s tough to take sometimes, even though it doesn’t mean it, some guys kind of translate that as I’m a failed position player, when it’s not what it means at all.”

He walked more than he struck out in 36 plate appearances in the FCL last year, but struggled to make contact once he got to Single-A, striking out nearly 40% of the time. It was an awkward situation for Chandler, as on the mound he was clearly ready for Bradenton, but not so much when it came to hitting.

Which is how we got to where we are in 2023, with him solely focusing on pitching, something in itself that was going to make some big adjustments.

“It’s a tough transition at first,” Hammock said. “He struggled with it, he struggled with all parts of it, with finding a routine, understanding, like his mentality and actually, learning how to pitch against better hitting, and how his profile fits.”

In the first 18 starts of the season, Chandler posted a 6.79 ERA, with a walk rate of 12.5% and opponents hitting .310 off of him.

He showed the obvious flashes here and there of what he could do, but overall struggled to put things together on a consistent basis. 

That isn’t an uncommon thing for young baseball players to do, struggle with consistency, in fact, it’s the biggest difference between Single- and High-A for Hammock.

“It’s just all consistency, right,” He continued. “It’s all consistency because all of them have the prowess to be successful with what they have, it’s the consistency level that comes into play where you know instead of being able to pitch at a higher level, they pitch at a higher level for one or two days and then they lose it for a week, two weeks, a month.”

Looking across Chandler’s first 16 starts, you see a lot of that, one example being July 18th against the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The righty pitched 5.2 shutout innings, striking out eight while allowing three hits and three walks but then turned around and allowed nine earned runs over his next two starts (8.1 IP).

“So, it’s just trying to figure out how to pitch at that high level more consistently, that’s all it is.”

It’s been a completely different Chandler down the stretch as he started to get more comfortable with his routine and started to find some of that consistency on the mound. 

Over his final eight starts in High-A, Chandler posted a 1.85 ERA, held opponents to a .173 average and dropped his walk rate to just 7.9% - all the while seeing a slight increase in his strikeouts (up to 26.1%). 

Even that stretch hasn’t been without obstacles. In his last start with Greensboro, in a four pitch span he allowed a home run, a single, and fell behind 2-0.

The next five pitches went - 96, 97, 96, 97, 90 (change up) for a ground out to end the innings.

It hasn’t been the easiest season for Chandler, who has been challenged from the outset when it comes to doing something he’s never done before at a level he was on average more than three years younger than the competition.

Regardless, not only has he risen to the occasion, he’s gotten stronger as the season has gone on, something you don’t generally see from prospects his age, entering uncharted waters when it comes to their workload.

There will always be work to be done, but he quickly flipped the script as a ‘project’ type prospect, to a legitimate pitcher that could be on a faster track than originally thought.

“Other kids are still in college at this point,” said Hammock. “He’s pitching in a High-A ball level and so he took some lumps there but he kept grinding, kept battling, kept staying in it and obviously there’s still going to be a lot more growth to it but, man, he’s heading in the right direction.”