Jared Jones' return an internal boost to pitching staff
Jones will return in 2026 after missing all of last year due to an injury
For the second straight season, the Pittsburgh Pirates will get a boost to their rotation from a player returning from missing the entire previous season.
Johan Oviedo missed the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery, returning last year to pitch 40.1 innings to close out the season. Now, Jared Jones will be looking to return from an elbow surgery of his own after missing all of 2025.
It was an electric rookie season for Jones, who posted a 4.14 ERA (3.78 xFIP) with 132 strikeouts to 39 walks over 121.2 innings pitched for the Pirates. He made 22 appearances, all starts, posting a 6-8 record.
Jones has always had electric stuff, his first professional pitch back in 2021 was a 99 mph fastball for the Bradenton Marauders as a 19 year old. He needed only 66 innings to cross the century mark in strikeouts that season, finishing with 103 punchouts (34.1 K%).
It’s a dynamic two-pitches that Jones relies on, throwing the fastball and slider around 84% of the time. Despite his heavy reliance on two pitches, hitters struggled with it, largely due to his elite approach angle from a 5-foot-5 release point while also getting nearly seven-feet of extension.
He hit the ground running, striking out 10 over 5.2 innings in his major league debut. An injury forced him to miss most of July and August, and he struggled down the stretch, but he showed what he was capable in the first half in full force.
While all signs pointing to him getting a little bit of a late start to the season, there’s still plenty of an opportunity for him to make an impact on this roster.
The pitching staff, especially the rotation, is expected to be the strength of the team, and the driving force of any potential push to the playoffs.
Adding Jones will be a big boost to a rotation that will already start the season with Paul Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Mitch Keller, while have Hunter Barco, Antwone Kelly, and Wilber Dotel as potential depth options.
That does bring up an interesting question on just how best to utilize Jones when he comes back. Returning from elbow surgery, there will likely be a strict pitch/innings limit to his season as they ease him back into things.
The Pirates have had some in recent years using pitchers in a hybrid/swing-man role, especially breaking some of their top prospects into the majors.
Ashcraft and Chandler both began out of the bullpen. Luis Ortiz’s best season of his career was in 2024, when he made 37 appearances, 15 of which were starts.
That would allow Jones to get eased back into the swing of things, and they could monitor his innings. Ortiz ended up with 135.2 innings in 2024 as a swingman for the Pirates.
For Ashcraft, he tossed 69.2 innings in the majors in 2025, making 26 appearances, eight of which were starts. He was promoted and made his debut on May 26th, facing the Arizona Diamondbacks, never being used for more than 3 innings until August 9th (3.1 IP) before having three straight outings where he completed at least five.
They started to wind him down towards the end, but this could be the same kind of roadmap Jones could follow in 2026 before jumping back fully into the rotation the following season.
Despite being used mostly as a reliever, Ashcraft still managed to put up a 1.6 fWAR mark, not far behind Jones’ 1.8 fWAR in 2024.
As a reliever, that would allow the two-pitch mix to play up even more, further expanding the repitoire as his workload increased.
Jones is a dynamic arm, one of several the Pirates have. Getting him back will be a big boost for a team that needs to put more wins up, and finding the best way to utilize him will be a key part of it all.
I like Jones to start back as a swing man. Maybe after AS break if all goes well he makes it back into the rotation.
I like him also to be a fireman type bullpen arm who can come in with ducks on the pond and get a needed strikeout or two to protect a lead.
I highly doubt they’ll let him pitch more than 70-75 innings no matter what this year.
Solid breakdown of the swingman approach for Jones. The Ortiz comparison is especially relevant since 135 innings in that role is a realistic target post-surgery. I remember watching him strike out those 10 in his debut and thinking his two-pitch mix was almost unfair from that release point. The Ashcraft roadmap makes alot of sense, especially with how they managed his workload towards the end.