Pittsburgh Pirates DVOA, Stats, & MLB Rankings

The Pittsburgh Pirates have no immediate plans to shut rookie right-hander Paul Skenes down. "There is no immediate plan to shut him down. There has never been any immediate plans to shut him down. How we monitor that, whether it's an innings limit or a workload limit per game, we'll be thoughtful about that," manager Derek Shelton said. While the Pirates continue to say they don't have any plans to shut down the 22-year-old phenom, they previously said they will consider shortening his outings. Last year's first overall pick out of LSU has already thrown more innings in 2024 than he did all of last year combined between college and in the minors. Skenes has been as advertised, going 7-2 with a 2.30 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 121 K's in 98 innings over his first 16 MLB starts. However, fantasy managers should expect some kind of restrictions down the stretch, especially if the Bucs are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Rowdy Tellez will take a seat in Wednesday's series finale against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field with a left-hander on the bump. Connor Joe will make the start at first base and will hit cleanup for the Pirates versus Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney. Tellez has only faced left-handers 39 times this year and is hitting .206 (7-for-34) against them, so it's no surprise he will retreat to the bench in favor of the right-handed-hitting Joe. Overall, Tellez has been a modest source of power (10 homers) as corner-infield depth in deeper fantasy leagues in 2024. Joe has only faced Heaney two times in his career and has gone hitless. Versus southpaws this year, he's gone 33-for-127 (.260) with three of his seven home runs. He'll be a low-cost DFS sleeper for Wednesday's slate out of the cleanup spot for the Bucs.

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller was stellar in Tuesday's 4-0 win over the Rangers. Keller pitched seven innings, allowing just three hits and no walks with nine strikeouts. This was a welcome outing for the Pirates and fantasy managers, as Keller had allowed a combined 15 earned runs in his previous two starts. His performance has fluctuated at times, but the 28-year-old is now 11-7 with a 3.76 ERA, an 8.13 K/9 rate, and a 2.43 BB/9 rate in 25 starts and 148 1/3 IP. His next start is slated to be a decent matchup against the Cubs. Hopefully, he can string together another solid outing.

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander Jared Jones (lat) was impressive in his latest minor-league rehab start for Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday, tossing five shutout innings while giving up only one hit, walking one and striking out 10. Jones looked to be in midseason form, especially with his fastball, which topped out near 100 mph. The 23-year-old is fully expected to come off the 15-day injured list to make his next start in the big leagues after this impressive performance. Jones hasn't pitched in the big leagues since July 3, and the Pirates weren't in any rush to bring him back, especially after a rough recent stretch that has really hurt their chances of getting into the postseason. Although Jones won't have much time to make a difference for fantasy managers to close out his rookie year, he shouldn't be ignored in mixed leagues after fanning 26.4% of the batters he faced in his first 16 MLB starts earlier this year.

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Jared Triolo homered for the second time in three games during Monday's 4-3 loss at the Texas Rangers. Triolo accounted for the Pirates' offense with his three-run dinger off Dane Dunning in the top of the fourth inning, his sixth. The recent power surge has Triolo hitting .201/.287/.295 with 31 RBI, 27 runs scored, and five stolen bases in six attempts. Despite Triolo's bat showing some promise, fantasy managers in standard leagues are wise to avoid him. Those in NL-only and deeper league formats should consider him if options are limited at the hot corner.