Pirates right-hander Jared Jones made his first Minor League rehab start on Wednesday as he continues to work his way back from internal brace surgery on his right elbow.
Pitching for Single-A Bradenton against Lakeland at LECOM Park, Jones looked good, throwing three perfect innings over which he struck out five batters and saw his fastball top out at 101.1 mph. He threw 41 pitches, 30 of which were strikes.
Prior to the rehab outing, Bucs general manager Ben Cherington said Jones would make several starts in the Minors to build himself up for a return to the big leagues. The expectation is Jones will be ready to return to the Major League pitching staff in late May or early June.
"At some point, he’ll pitch at higher levels,” Cherington said. “We anticipate, assuming that first outing goes well, we’ll take it an outing at a time and map out the rest of the schedule. We anticipate several outings, trying to approximate a Spring Training as closely as we can."
Jones, 24, made his MLB debut with Pittsburgh in 2024, and he posted a 4.14 ERA (100 ERA+) over 22 starts in that rookie campaign. He was outstanding over his first 13 starts, pitching to a 3.27 ERA and striking out 79 while walking 18 over 74 1/3 innings. But over his next nine outings, his ERA was 5.51 -- and he missed significant time over that stretch due to a lat injury.
Jones hasn't pitched in the Majors since September 2024. He underwent the procedure on his elbow on May 21, 2025.
Mainly featuring a fastball-slider mix, Jones also throws a curveball and a changeup. The Pirates have said they view Jones' long-term future as a starter, though it remains to be seen whether they deploy him as a middle reliever -- an area of need so far this season -- upon his return since the plan is for him to stretch out for a starter's workload during his rehab assignment.