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Looking at Braxton Ashcraft’s Breakout 2026 Season

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Looking at Braxton Ashcraft’s Breakout 2026 Season

Originally posted on New Baseball Media
By Chris Studley | Last updated Oct 12, 2026 12:45 PM ET

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As we continue to look at the best breakout stories from the 2026 MLB season, we move to Pirates sophomore pitcher Braxton Ashcraft.

Reds pitcher Chase Burns wasn’t the only young arm in the NL Central who broke out during the 2026 campaign. Braxton Ashcraft, who slowly climbed the Minor Leagues after he was drafted by Pittsburgh in 2018. Eight years later, Ashcraft was, arguably, the most valuable pitcher for the Pirates during this past season.

Moving into a familiar role

For much of his time in 2025 with the Pirates, after Pittsburgh promoted him to the Majors, Braxton Ashcraft worked as a reliever. But he did make eight starts in 2025, and that was the role he held for all of 2026.

The peripherals looked good and then some for Ashcraft. In his first full season as a starter, Ashcraft won 14 games, posted a 3.65 ERA, and struck out 173 batters over 165 innings.

His BB/9 of 1.91 was the eighth-lowest among starting pitchers with 100+ IP last year.

The stuff won out

Back in July, we noted that Ashcraft, through the first two months of 2026, had one of the 10 highest Chase% in the Majors. That was a clear sign of the fact that Ashcraft’s pitching process was working.

While Ashcraft could induce swing-and-miss with both the two-seamer and four-seamer — he did so equally in 2026, a rarity amongst pitchers — the big whiff pitcher was his hammer curveball. That pitch, a mid-80s breaking ball that can just drop off that table, netted him a 38.7% Whiff%.

A good example of how good that pitch was was in July, when this curveball to Jake Bauers started in the lower half of the strike zone, before dropping off in an instant.

But what was more interesting was how Ashcraft used that pitch. Among the 120 swings-and-misses Ashcraft netted off the curveball, he used that pitch immediately after a four-seam fastball. There were also a handful of times it was used off a sinker.

The key to pitching is complicated. But speeding hitters up, before bringing them down in an effective manner, works well.

You know what also helped? The fact that very few right-handed hitters squared him up.

(via New Baseball Media)

Handling the innings load

Between Triple-A and the Majors, Ashcraft threw 119 innings during the 2025 campaign. This year, it was 165.1 IP, a significant uptick. So, how did Ashcraft’s second half go after such a strong first half? Not too bad.

Ashcraft sported a 3.98 ERA, striking out 45 over 52 innings. There were a couple of interesting takeaways from that second half. One, his BB/9 rate of 1.4 was the fifth-lowest in the Majors. The right-hander, who had one of the lowest overall walk rates in the league last year, relied more on that sinker of his to pound the zone.

(via New Baseball Media)

Two, the fastball velocity held. And as a matter of fact, the mean monthly velo crept up as the year went along, as did the number of times he hit over 98 MPH. For a pitcher who hadn’t worked as much volume as he did in past years thanks to injury & other circumstances, it was a very promising sign

(via New Baseball Media)

The dot-boxplot looks light in September, and for good reason. Ashcraft missed the final few weeks of 2026 with right arm discomfort. But overall, it’s hard to complain about the results.

Looking ahead

When the 2026 season started, I don’t think many people would have suspected that Ashcraft would be on par, or in some cases, better than Paul Skenes. Nonetheless, the breakout of Ashcraft was more than a positive for the Pirates’ future.

Now, with Ashcraft, Skenes, the promise of Bubba Chandler, and the youngsters in the farm system, the Pirates have the chance to throw out some big hurlers come the 2027 campaign.

This article first appeared on New Baseball Media and was syndicated with permission.

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