Bubba Chandler is passionate about pitching, so the attitude the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander has adopted toward his high walk rate sounds counterintuitive: Who cares?
It’s not Chandler is carefree about issuing free passes at an alarming rate — his 15.6% walk rate ranks near the bottom of baseball — but he’s attempting to change his mentality to throw more strikes than balls.
“I think I’m trying to do too much,” Chandler said. “I’m pitching a little scared because I don’t want to walk people. That’s when you’re going to walk people.”
Chandler’s 27 walks over eight starts are tied for third-most in MLB with Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez, two behind leaders Jack Flaherty of Detroit and Luis Severino of the A’s. After allowing only four walks against 31 strikeouts in seven appearances last season, Chandler has four or more walks in half of his eight starts this season, twice giving up six walks in a game.
The Pirates are attempting to impress upon Chandler that he can’t dwell on trying to avoid walks. The 98.5 mph average velocity on his four-seam fastball ranks in the 97th percentile, per Statcast, and has accounted for 16 of his 34 strikeouts this season. Opponents are hitting .206 against his heater, which makes it one of the most effective pitches in his arsenal. They don’t want him to take a more careful approach.
“You can’t do that. When you play this game, you can’t play a game of don’ts,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “That’s not the mindset that leads to success, in my opinion. When you start worrying about trying not to walk guys, you’re going to walk guys. It’s the mindset of staying aggressive, staying in the strike zone.”
Where Chandler is capable of touching triple digits, command has been a concern. But he is throwing 64.7% first-pitch strikes, up from 58.9% last season. So he’s not interested in dialing back the velocity on his fastball in an effort to improve his control like he did after topping triple digits in his first Grapefruit League outing in spring training. In fact, he believes that if the opposite is true, he’s better off.
“I’m just not being as aggressive as I want because I don’t want to walk people,” Chandler said. “Walks do score most of the time and my most of my runs have come after a walk. I have that in my head that I can’t walk people. I’m like, ‘Screw that. I’ve got to rip stuff.’”
The concerns date back to his spring training debut. In his first Grapefruit League game against the New York Yankees on Feb. 23, Chandler admitted he was short on sleep and over-caffeinated on coffee. So when he registered 100.6 on the radar gun, he decided to dial it back and threw only 14 of his 35 pitches for strikes, allowing four walks and four runs in 1 2/3 innings.
“I was trying to be too perfect when, in reality, this is the most imperfect game there is,” Chandler said. “If I go out there and do my job, it’s going to look pretty good in the box score.”
Point to the way his major league career started as a possible problem, only for how Chandler created such high expectations for himself. Regarded as one of the best right-handed pitching prospects in baseball — he started this season ranked No. 15 by MLB Pipeline — Chandler was dominant in his debut and through the majority of his first seven appearances.
Chandler earned a four-inning save against Colorado in his debut and didn’t give up a run through the first eight innings — all in relief — of his first two appearances. He surrendered two home runs in four innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers but still got the win. The Milwaukee Brewers battered him for nine runs on nine hits and three walks in his first start, but Chandler had 19 strikeouts without a walk and allowed two runs on seven hits over his final three starts.
“Last year, I had one rough outing. I did a better job last year of just flushing that bad outing,” Chandler said. “In my last four, I took two perfect games into the sixth. I was dominant. This year, it’s more I’m trying to do too much. You want to get off to a good start. You want to win. But, in reality, my job gets easier when I don’t pound the zone. When I have an outing, take away the good stuff.”
In his season debut, an 8-3 win at Cincinnati, the focus was on Chandler issuing a career-high six walks, three each in the third and fifth innings. Upon reflection, Chandler now views that game with a different perspective. He also had six strikeouts, didn’t surrender a hit and the Reds’ only run was unearned over 4 1/3 innings.
“Just worrying about people getting on base, that’s what I’ve been dealing with the last month and a half,” Chandler said. “Now, if people get on base, who cares? I’m going to hold you. I’m going to do everything to make sure you don’t score. But if you get on base, who cares? You’re not going to throw a perfect game every time.”
Chandler gave up four more walks in his next start, a 5-0 loss to San Diego. But he fared better against the Chicago Cubs, with four strikeouts and two walks in 5 1/3 innings, before the Pirates blew a five-run lead. Chandler retired 18 of 19 batters through the first 5 2/3 innings in a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay. But he walked the first two batters to start the fourth inning at Texas and gave up an RBI single and three-run homer in a 6-1 loss. He had six strikeouts and four walks against St. Louis, then six walks and four strikeouts in a 9-0 loss at Arizona, when first-inning defensive mishaps served as a source of frustration. But Chandler powered through with 92 pitches over five innings. In his most recent start, Chandler allowed only one walk in five innings in a 7-6 loss at San Francisco.
Chandler has no shortage of confidence and believes his best is to come, and Pirates general manager Ben Cherington shares the same view.
“We’re seeing really good development from Bubba this year, even though performances haven’t been perfect every time out,” Cherington said. “I think we’re seeing a compete level, we’re seeing him staying in games. When he has run into some messy innings, he’s been able to grind through and bounce back, for the most part.”
Cherington credited Chandler for his work between starts and willingness to challenge himself. Cherington rationalized the difference between “wild walks” — when a pitcher can’t find the strike zone — and “process-related walks,” when one pitch can flip a count or a series of foul balls is followed by a miss.
“To me, more of his walks have been of that variety, certainly lately,” Cherington said. “He’s got the stuff. Obviously, the upside as a starting pitcher is really high. We’re going to keep working with him. He’s really important to us. Believe he’s making steady progress in this role as a starting pitcher in the major leagues.”