On May 28, the Pirates declared that Jared Jones is ready to go at the Major League level. After a month-long rehab assignment, Jared Jones will make his 2026 season debut against the Twins after he missed all of 2025. That assignment, by the way, went pretty well, as you’d expect.
The numbers
The numbers were pretty darn good for Jared Jones, overall. Across five starts between High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, the 24-year-old struck out 24 over 18.2 IP, walked six, and allowed only 13 hits between those five outings.
Jones never tossed more than 4.1 innings in any of the five starts he made in the Minors. However, innings count can be misleading, as the pitch count is a better indication of how built up a pitcher actually is.
Down with Low-A Bradenton in his first start, Jones tossed 41 pitches. And throughout the month, he slowly built up the count. His most recent start, which came on May 23, Jones struck out six and threw 76 pitches over 4.1 IP. So along the way, he got to where he roughly needs to be heading into his first tour of Major League action.
The velocity
When Jones first came up, the talk was about the velocity. Jones regularly ran upper-90s heat at opposing hitters in the Minors. That held true during his rookie season. And for those who’ve followed our injury reports over the past few weeks, you’re probably aware that the velo was very much there.
Jones maxed out at 101 MPH among recorded Statcast pitches, a figure that came in Low-A when he was still building up his pitch count. He touched 100 MPH several more times during his rehab tour, and as expected, the average slowly tailed down as he got more and more built up.
And to note, that shouldn’t be surprising. But to see this velocity show up early & often was extremely promising.
In these starts, by the way, Jones had a swing-and-miss rate above 30%. On April 29, the rate of 36.4%. On May 6, it was down to 31%. And lastly, during the May 23 start, it was a cool 38.9%.
With Jones’ rehab tour in the books, now comes the fun part for Pirates’ fans: to see what the 24-year-old righty can do in what should be an exciting next few weeks in Pittsburgh.
The Pirates have a competitive team in Pittsburgh, thanks to a much-improved offense and a good pitching staff. Paul Skenes, to little shock, has been impressive, while Braxton Ashcraft has been sensational in his first full season as an MLB starter. Add in veteran Mitch Keller, and the Pirates have a recipe for success.
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