Pirates Place Carmen Mlodzinski On Restricted List After Role Change originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh.
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The Pittsburgh Piratesannounced on Sunday that the team was placing right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski on the restricted list.
Today, we have reinstated 1B/OF Ryan O’Hearn from the 10-day injured list and placed INF Konnor Griffin (right elbow strain) on the 10-day injured list.
Additionally, we have placed RHP Carmen Mlodzinski on the restricted list and recalled RHP Cam Sanders from Triple-A…
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 31, 2026
Mlodzinski being placed on the restricted list comes as a complete surprise, just days after being moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen when the Pirates reactivated Jared Jones from the 60-day injured list.
MLB.com’s Aiden Stepansky shared that the 27-year-old pitcher is not physically injured and did not request a trade, but was not ready to perform in his new role out of the bullpen yet.
“Mlodzinski has not requested a trade, and Cherington believes he’ll pitch for the Pirates on the road trip that ends June 7,” Stepansky wrote on Sunday. “A source told MLB.com that the move was because Mlodzinski felt he wasn’t physically or mentally ready to help the team win in his new role just yet.
“Rather than force the Bucs to play a man short, he was honest with the team. The source also said that Mlodzinski seems to be on board with his role in the bullpen, and is prepared to pitch in Houston on Tuesday, following Monday’s off-day.”
Mlodzinski has performed well for Pittsburgh this season, posting a 3.76 ERA across 11 appearances (nine starts) with a 4-3 record. Still, the Pirates elected to move the four-year veteran to the bullpen after reactivating Jones.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington is confident that Mlodzinski will be pitching again for the team very soon.
“Confident that we’re going to see him pitch for this team very soon, but he wasn’t ready to do that today,” Cherington said, per Stepansky. “I think going into the weekend we understood and communicated with Carmen that at some point this weekend we were going to need him to be ready or we’re going to have to replace him on the team, in fairness to the team. So that’s what happened.”
Though Mlodzinski is struggling with the transition to the bullpen, he should be back on the mound soon for Pittsburgh.
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