The Pittsburgh Pirates have slotted one of their top pitching prospects in their bullpen. Wilber Dotel has taken up a multi-inning relief role and has performed well throughout his first handful of MLB innings. The last Pirates player to take a similar path in the Major Leagues became an ace-caliber pitcher. Dotel can follow in the footsteps of Braxton Ashcraft this year.
Dotel entered 2026 as a starting pitching prospect. Before this season, he hadn’t appeared out of the bullpen since his age-20 season in 2023, when he was still at A-Ball Bradenton. 2025 marked the second season in a row he made at least 25 starts. He posted respectable numbers, with a 4.15 ERA, 24.5% K%, and 8% BB% at Double-A Altoona. He also had just a 1.00 HR/9 ratio. Baseball America ranks the right-hander as the Pirates’ tenth-best prospect.
Ashcraft also had little experience as a reliever entering 2025. His minor league career consists of 71 appearances, 69 of which were starts. All two bullpen appearances came in 2024. Ashcraft pitched excellently between his breakout 2023 and his 2024 encore, working to a 2.65 ERA, with a 27.3% strikeout rate, and 4.5% walk rate. He ranked slightly higher than Dotel did before his rookie year, as BA named him the Pirates’ fourth-best prospect going into 2025.
So far, Dotel has logged 10.2 Major League innings, all out of the pen. In that time, he has only allowed two earned runs and six hits. Dotel has struck out ten of the batters he has faced, while only handing out three free passes. The young right-hander’s stuff has looked as good as anyone’s, with a 105 FanGraphs Stuff+.
Like Dotel, Ashcraft also started his MLB career out of the bullpen. Only one of his first 17 outings in 2025 was a start. Even then, he was used as a piggyback starter, going three innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 23rd. Ashcraft was very effective as well during this stretch. He posted a 3.24 ERA, with a 19.4% K%, and 8.3% BB%. He allowed just a single home run while holding opposing batters to a meager 4.8% barrel percentage. Ashcraft had an identical 105 FanGraphs Stuff+ when he primarily pitched out of the Pirates’ bullpen.
Since moving to the rotation nearly full-time, Ashcraft has been one of baseball’s best. His 2.57 ERA since his move to the rotation is the third-best in baseball. He also ranks in the top ten in FIP at 2.96, WHIP at 1.08, barrel rate at 4.8%, and HR/9 at 0.68. Plus, his 26.7% K% and 6.9% BB% are both much better than average.
So far, Dotel has shown many different similarities between himself and Ashcraft. Both were top Pirates pitching prospects who first broke onto the Pirates’ roster as multi-inning relievers. Both also flashed plus stuff with a 105 FanGraphs Stuff+. Given how well Ashcraft has pitched, do not rule out that Dotel can do something similar late this year and heading into 2027.
