On Wednesday, the Pirates clarified their plan for the rest of the season for top prospect Bubba Chandler, who fantasy managers have been anticipating arriving since early this season. Chandler will make his MLB debut on Friday against the Rockies, but his role is a little bit of a surprise.
Chandler has been a starting pitcher throughout his rise to the majors, and this season has started all 24 of his games in Triple-A with the Indianapolis Indians. He was absolutely dominant early in the season, going 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in his first six games, but he had some growing pains later in the season.
In 23 starts spanning 100 innings, Chandler ended up 5-6 with a 4.05 ERA and 3.89 FIP. He finished with a few less-than-stellar outings, posting a 1-4 record with a 7.42 ERA and 5.75 FIP. He did still have 28 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings over that stretch, and racked up a total of 121 strikeouts in his 100 innings in Triple-A.
For fantasy purposes, his role as a bulk reliever makes him very hard to use, since it may not be clear when he is pitching. He does still have very good strikeout upside, but he doesn’t look like he’ll be a league-winner since the Pirates are limiting his role so much.
If it is clear when he is working as a bulk reliever, it could remove the five-inning minimum for wins, which is a positive, but he won’t likely get as many innings as he would as a traditional starter.
If he does have success, the plan could change, and he could get some spot starts late in the year. At this point, though, Chandler is high-risk and not someone that necessarily will make huge contributions for fantasy baseball with the current plan in place.
