Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Jared Jones had a promising 2024 rookie season. In 22 starts and 121 2/3 innings, Jones posted a 4.14 ERA, 4.00 FIP, and a 1.19 WHIP. He struck out 26.2% of opponents, with a 7.7% walk rate. Jones missed all of 2025 with elbow surgery but returned in 2026 better than ever, exceeding expectations . He threw 101 2/3 innings over 21 starts, posting a 3.72 ERA, 3.22 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. His K% sat just a shade under 30% (29.6%), while only having a 7.5% walk rate.
Jones' 2026 season was impressive for many reasons. Not only did he avoid a significant step back in workload, but his overall results were much better from 2024 to 2026. He did all that despite missing over a year with internal brace surgery. Here's what he improved most from his rookie year.
Sep 16, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) delivers a pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Jones struggled to keep batters from hitting the ball hard in 2024. He posted the 27th percentile in exit velocity (89.6 MPH), the eighth percentile in hard-hit rate (44.5%), and the 14th percentile in barrel rate (9.8%). Allowing that much hard contact unsurprisingly led to an HR/9 ratio of 1.33. However, Jones performed much better in this regard in 2026. Although he was still below average in exit velocity at 89.1 MPH, he was now in the 55th percentile in hard-hit rate at 37.6%, and his barrel rate fell to 7.4%. His HR/9 ratio took a similar turn for the better to 1.06.
One of the main criticisms Jones has received in his Major League career thus far is the lack of a third pitch. In 2024, his third-most-used offering was his curveball; however, it was his least effective offering. He used it 9.3% of the time, and batters hit .348 with an .870 slugging percentage against it. To put it into perspective, Barry Bonds batted .328 with a .863 slugging percentage when he broke the single-season home run record in 2001. His .397 xwOBA on his curveball suggested that even with some bad luck, it was still a poor offering.
However, Jones' curveball became significantly more effective in 2026. He held opponents to just a .240 batting average against, with a .320 slugging percentage. That is like going from prime Bonds to Ozzie Smith , who had a career .328 slugging percentage. His xwOBA on his curveball also fell to just .237. Jones also induced far more whiffs, with his whiff rate going from 32.7% in 2024 to 41.1% in 2026. Jones can thank the reworks he did to the pitch for its increased effectiveness. In 2024, he threw his curveball at 81.5 MPH on average, with 51.9 inches of drop and 6.3 inches of glove-side break. His curveball had a spin rate just under 2700 RPM.
Sep 4, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
However, in 2026, Jones threw his curveball much harder, sitting at 85.7 MPH. He didn't sacrifice much movement to gain over four MPH of velocity, coming in with 46.6 inches of drop and 5.4 inches of glove-side break. He now has one of the league's highest-spin curveballs. Among pitchers who threw at least 100 curveballs this year, Jones' 2933 RPM curve is the 15th-best. Between his increased velocity, minimal decrease in movement, and significant increase in spin, FanGraphs' Stuff+ metric on his curveball went from 91 to 111.
Jones struggled to get the results he wanted with his change-up in 2024. Batters hit .325 against it, with a .575 slugging percentage. A .330 xwOBA suggested bad luck played a role in his struggles; however, he still had an unimpressive 22.9% whiff rate, and 23.2% of the change-ups he threw ended up in the heart of the strike zone.
Jones avoided leaving his change-up in hittable places much better in 2026. This year, batters hit .263 with a .421 slugging percentage against the same pitch. His .296 xwOBA was a significant improvement from 2024. Jones induced a whiff rate of 38.6% on his change-up, which was the 33rd-best mark among pitchers in 2026 who threw at least 150 change-ups. He only left his change-up in the heart of the zone 12.7% of the time.
Like his curveball, Jones' change-up also gained a noticeable amount of velocity. In 2024, he was clocked at 89.9 MPH on average with his change. In 2026, he upped it to 92.8 MPH, making it the third-hardest thrown change-up in baseball this year (min. 100 change-ups). However, unlike his curveball, he improved his change-up velocity while not sacrificing even an inch of vertical drop (28.1 inches to 28 inches) or arm-side break (11.9 inches to 12.3 inches).
Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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