Why the Pirates placed Carmen Mlodzinski on MLB's restricted list and what's next

Carmen Mlodzinski informed the Pirates on Sunday morning that he wasn’t ready make his scheduled appearance out of the bullpen, hence why they placed him on Major League Baseball’s restricted list.

But speaking to reporters mid-game, general manager Ben Cherington expressed confidence the pitcher would appear at some point on the team’s upcoming road trip after the Pirates moved Mlodzinski to the bullpen on Thursday.

“We believe he can be a starting pitcher, and he’ll be a starting pitcher in the future,” Cherington said. “But we made that decision and had the conversation with Carmen, which would knew would be challenging.

“In the days since, we’ve had very consistent communication with Carmen, even right up to this morning. I believe we’ve made a lot of progress with him, what his role is going to be and how we can work with him in that role to help the team win.

“Confident we’re going to see him pitch again for this team very soon, but he wasn’t ready to do that today.”

“Going into the weekend we understood and communicated with Carmen that at some point this weekend, we were going to need him to be ready or we were going to have to replace him on the team, in fairness to the team. So that’s what happened to him.”

To fill Mlodzinski’s spot on the roster, the Pirates recalled Cam Sanders from Triple-A Indianapolis.

The restricted list is for players who are under contract but unable to play due to unexcused, personal or non-baseball reasons. There’s no limit to how long a player can stay on the restricted list, but he isn’t paid and doesn’t earn service time.

Speaking on Friday, Mlodzinski expressed his displeasure with move, believing he did enough to keep his spot in the rotation. His numbers — a 4-3 record with a 3.76 ERA in 55 innings — are also better than those of Bubba Chandler.

But Mlodzinski has pitched out of the bullpen before, has done it well, and he offers a better solution for the team to address a key weakness than Chandler.

Manager Don Kelly called Mlodzinski a high-leverage bulk guy, essentially starting the second half of games instead of one- or two-inning spurts. The starter-like usage would give the Pirates bullpen rest days and improve performance in an area that has lacked.

While Mlodzinski has endured plenty of scrutiny over his belief that he should be starting, there’s a human element to this worth acknowledging. Mlodzinski was pretty darn upset that he lost his job despite not actually doing anything wrong.

He probably needed more time than a baseball schedule affords, and at least he said something before taking the mound in a close game and getting rocked.

Using this as a reset makes sense, assuming Mlodzinski flips the switch and embraces the role next week, which Cherington said the pitcher appears ready to do.

“I believe that it was a challenging week,” Cherington said. “We’ve made good progress, he’s made progress and confident how this is going to work going forward.”

Griffin to the IL

Mlodzinski wasn’t the only tough decision the Pirates had to make on Sunday.

They also placed Konnor Griffin on the 10-day injured list with a minor flexor strain in his right forearm.

There’s no change in Griffin’s initial diagnosis Cherington added, but despite throwing Sunday, he wasn’t going to be able to return Tuesday and play shortstop. Cherington also said the Pirates are trying to operate with caution when it comes to Griffin.

“We remain optimistic that he’ll be back playing for us before too long, but obviously we’ll be careful with it, need to listen to him and we’ll put him out there when he’s ready to go out there,” Cherington said. “He threw [Sunday], he felt a lot better throwing today than he had a few days ago, so there’s a lot of progress being made. Just wasn’t quite there yet.”

Griffin is hitting .317 with 12 extra-base hits, 14 RBIs, 10 walks, 10 stolen bases and 23 runs scored over his last 32 games … or since turning 20 on April 24. Cherington said it’s possible Griffin could return on the next homestand.

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.