Thanks to a strange brew of injuries, underwhelming performances and real progress made by the man himself, we can legitimately ask a question that would have seemed absurd even a few months ago: Right now, is Steven Brault the Pirates’ best starting pitcher?
The lefty, once swapped from the Orioles to the Pirates as the player to be named in the Travis Snider trade, has mostly bounced between spot starter and long relief duty since breaking into the majors in 2016. And, frankly, he didn’t make much of a case for sticking in the rotation.