A closer look at new big leaguer Bubba Chandler and the 9 best starters still in Triple A

In Pittsburgh, they’ve been waiting a while for this day. Bubba Chandler, the Pirates’ best prospect as assessed by The Athletic’s Keith Law, is coming up to the big leagues. The wait has been so long for Chandler’s arrival that warts have emerged, and this isn’t the unqualified ascension that so many envisioned when Chandler was blowing away batters across the minors last season.

This version of Chandler, who will debut as a bulk reliever in the short term, doesn’t even lead the current crop of Triple-A starters in key metrics. And the Triple-A level has been thinned of many top starters by their major-league organizations as they try to piece together another 162-game season.

In fact, where Chandler sits among Triple-A starters with less than 15 MLB innings by Stuff+ might be a surprise.

Chandler’s fastball and slider rate highly in the Stuff+ model, which uses the physical characteristics of pitches, with both counting as “60” options on the 20-80 scouting scale. That’ll be the foundation of his success in the big leagues, and probably what viewers will see the most of in his role as a reliever.

He struggled locating the fastball this year, which led to a higher walk rate, but there’s some chance that the big leagues will be more forgiving — he throws his four-seam fastball high, and the major-league strike zone (perhaps because of catcher pitch-framing effects) can offer more called strikes up high. Also, with a more “win-now” approach versus a developmental focus, perhaps he swaps some fastballs for sliders in the big leagues.

i think if i were in bubba chandler’s ear i’d maybe cut back the four-seam some and try to locate the breaking pitches down more, but that’s just an amateur picking nits. he’s clearly big league ready pic.twitter.com/JXTGzUB3cw

— Stephen Sutton-Brown (@srbrown70) August 20, 2025

The curveball and changeup will be keys as he stretches back out into a starting role. Reports are that the curve pops out of his hand a little, so either he can land that for called strikes or he’ll have to lean on his 40/45-grade changeup more.

All in all, it’s an arsenal with a solid foundation looking for more polish than maybe we once believed.

Here are some thoughts on the other nine fantasy options as they make their way to the big leagues.

Jonah Tong, RHP, New York Mets

Tong leaps at hitters with a delivery modeled after Tim Lincecum’s, and he’s got the record-breaking strikeouts you’d expect from his elite stuff coming from a release point like this:

Jonah Tong has used that delivery to lead ALL of Minor League Baseball with 125 strikeouts 😳 https://t.co/WgPhXFMDsR pic.twitter.com/Ko319peWXw

— MLB (@MLB) July 16, 2025

The model rates his fastball as an 80, and loves his curveball … but he’s only thrown four curveballs so far in Triple A, so take that with a grain of salt. Command is a question, with below-average locations on the fastball and a complicated delivery. But with possibly the best stuff in the top level of the minors — at least three pitches that look major-league ready — and eye-popping results, Tong is on the cusp of joining the big leagues.

The only problem? He’s not on the 40-man roster, and his main obstacle on the active roster — barring injury — is Frankie Montas, who’s under contract for another season at a hefty price. It’s worth watching.

Andrew Painter, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies

Over in Philadelphia, there’s a similar problem for Painter, who’s not on the 40-man roster, but there may be an opening now that Zack Wheeler is recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot near his shoulder. Many around baseball  are down on Painter due to some lackluster top-line results in Triple A, but it’s possible that the pitches themselves are better than the overall package right now.

You could look at this mix and take the negative view, that there’s really only one elite pitch in here once you consider stuff and command, and that only one of his pitches has above-average locations. That’s fair.

But there’s another way to see this mix. It’s possible that he would look much better if he stopped throwing the sinker and the changeup right now. They are his worst pitches overall, and throwing them is probably costing him with walks and strikeouts. It’s laudable — and predictable — that the Phillies would want him to throw three fastballs and have a large pitch mix, but when you see Painter in the big leagues, he’ll probably focus on the four-seam, cutter and curveball most of all. And those three pitches rate as 60s and 70s.

Sometimes, guys in the minors really are working on things.

Jhancarlos Lara, RHP, Atlanta Braves

Lara is probably a reliever in the long run, but the Braves are still trying him as a starter. He does have a four-pitch mix, and obviously the stuff is enticing, particularly with the cutter and sinker. But as the 20 percent walk rate indicates — and the location numbers support — he just doesn’t have the command on any of his pitches to offer much optimism that he can put them all together and turn over lineups multiple times.

Blade Tidwell, RHP San Francisco Giants

As the overall numbers suggest, Tidwell also has a bit of a command problem, but nowhere near the level of Lara. Tidwell at least has above-average location numbers on the cutter and the sweeper, and is within hailing distance of average on the slider and sinker.

The comp here might be Clarke Schmidt. Not from a body standpoint, but both are right-handed sinker/sweeper guys that are looking to find their way against lefties. Like Schmidt, Tidwell’s cutter offers real promise, even if the changeup is probably a miss. Could Tidwell try being a cutter/slider/curve guy against lefties?

It could work, and he’s got opportunity waiting on him in the big leagues now in San Francisco… but he’s also dealing with shoulder discomfort at just the wrong time.

Connor Prielipp, LHP, Minnesota Twins

Ranked all the way down at 14th in the pre-season Twins top-20 prospect list, Prielipp has answered at least some questions by throwing 65 innings so far in the minor leagues. That’s a lot of progress for a pitcher who had 58 innings in the previous five seasons. He’s also made good on the “No. 2 starter stuff” analysis from Law, while adding excellent command on all of his pitches. Though he has OK velocity, the lefty’s fastballs are not above-average by Stuff+. He’s dominating based on a great slider and changeup combo — and questions remain about the quality of his fastball at the major-league level.

Noah Schultz, LHP, Chicago White Sox

Everyone’s top White Sox pitching prospect has taken a winding road through the season, with a pit stop due to an injured knee, but Schultz finally made it to Triple A and showed the machines that he had above-average stuff on the four-seam, sinker, slider and curveball, and that the changeup looks like a league-average offering overall, as well. Don’t worry about the ERA and WHIP in a short Triple-A stint so far, this is everything people expected. He’s just getting used to a new level. There are no red flags, and as a lefty with a wide pitch mix, he’s hitting two key ways that pitchers can out-perform the models and projections. It’s the year of the southpaw, after all!

Robby Snelling, LHP, Miami Marlins

When Snelling was traded to the Marlins in the Tanner Scott deal last season, he seemed like the perfect kind of pitcher to trade away for a dominant rental. Reports were always positive about his mound demeanor, but his stuff was mostly vanilla as rated by scouts and models. But then he went to work this offseason and added velocity, which made everything play up.

This looks like a pitcher with a foundation — the fastball and curveball are above-average for action and command — though he still has some question marks. Will the changeup be good enough? If not, can he be dominant enough against righties with two pitches? What happens if the velocity slips at all?

This also looks like a very intriguing lefty who’s just a 40-man spot away from showing us what he can do in the majors.

Hunter Barco, LHP, Pittsburgh Pirates

A lefty who’s best fastball is a sinker is a risky bet. Sinkers aren’t great against opposite-handed hitters at least. But Barco also throws a good cutter, an average slider and a splitter that has good results so far and that the Pitching+ model thinks is an average pitch. None of his locations rate as above-average, but none are disasters. He’s thrown the cutter the least, but the model says it has promise — watch the usage of that pitch to see if long term he’s a starter or a reliever. If the cutter is legit, he should be able to show at least three pitches to batters on each side of the plate.

Brandon Sproat, RHP, New York Mets

Is Sproat being passed by Tong on the Mets’ depth chart like Nolan McLean just did? If he is, it’s because of the quality of the fastballs. All three of his breaking balls — a sweeper, curveball and slider — are positives by stuff, and he commands them well enough to make them above-average pitches. His sinker is slightly above-average by stuff and he commands it well. But the four-seam doesn’t rate well in any facet other than velocity, and that leaves him short of a fastball to use against lefties, with below-average command to boot. Can he rely on the velocity, shape be damned? That seems to be the plan so far, as he’s throwing the 88 Stuff+ four-seam to lefties in Triple A right now. And that league is hitting over .300 against the pitch.

The bet here is that Sproat won’t crack the Mets’ roster this year as he works on refining his fastball mix and command — especially since he doesn’t have a roster spot waiting for him.

(Photo of Chandler: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)