The Pittsburgh Pirates have a handful of young pitchers with a lot of potential, and Khristian Curtis is one of them. The 24-year-old has only pitched in two games so far but both outings were very impressive.
His first outing was on July 18 against the Cleveland Guardians, where he threw for five innings. The right-handed pitcher allowed just two hits and struck out four batters allowing no runs.
His second outing was on August 23 against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched three
innings, allowed no runs, struck out a batter and allowed only one walk. To have a scoreless game against the defending champion and one of the best teams in the league like the Dodgers is really impressive.
Even though Curtis has only thrown eight innings, he did so against two playoff-caliber teams and didn’t allow a single run. That’s a really promising sign for someone that could easily be a part of starting rotation in the future.
Curtis was just optioned back down to Triple A Indianapolis but is expected to be called back up when the rosters expand in September. Curtis started 12 games for Double-A Altoona before earning his Triple-A promotion on June 9 and has pitched in nine games, making five starts.
Even though Curtis was called back down I still think the righty can see some more action before the season is over. To throw eight scoreless innings as a young inexperienced 24-year-old is impressive, and I think he could be a nice piece to have especially for the start of the 2027 season.
The young pitcher was ranked as the 21st prospect in the MLB pipeline before getting called up. Curtis was selected by Pittsburgh in the 12th round of the 2023 First-Year Player Draft out of Arizona State (Tempe) University.
