Ashcraft’s Stellar First Full Season for Pirates Ends on IL; No Long-Term Concern

PITTSBURGH – Braxton Ashcraft 's stellar first extended season for the Pirates is over. The right-hander was placed on the 15-day injured list on Sep. 10 with right arm discomfort and will not return to the mound by the end of the year.

Fortunately for Ashcraft, who has an extensive injury history from his time as a prospect, his current arm discomfort is not anything to worry about long-term. He even said he would have pushed through it had the Pirates not been eliminated from the playoffs .

"I was never concerned," Ashcraft said of his injury. "Nobody ever had a concern about anything being structural or anything that was more than just general discomfort because of fatigue."

The general arm fatigue that has Ashcraft sidelined is something that came on rather abruptly. For most of the season, he felt good physically.

"It was one of those things that kind of presented all of a sudden," he explained. "It's part of the game. It's part of learning. It's part of going into your first full year with a true workload and learning how to manage that. I feel like the entire year, I did a really good job of that. I was never sore all year long. Just all of a sudden kind of bit me in the butt."

For much of the season, Ashcraft had been the team's most dependable starting pitcher. He made 28 starts and finished 14-6 with a 3.65 ERA. In 165.1 innings, he allowed 145 hits, walked 35 and struck out 173 batters. Ashcraft, who was named a National League All-Star, can be proud of the season he had.

"That's our goal, right, to be able to contribute to winning baseball games, and building a foundation here to create a winning culture … That's been my goal for my entire career, to be able to go out and post every time my name's on the sheet," he explained. " A big piece of that is going out and being able to cover your innings, and that's one thing I took a lot of pride in this year."

Ashcraft had a few memorable stats this season, including throwing a complete game shutout against the Marlins on Aug. 13. He also had two games in which he recorded double-digit strikeouts without walking a batter – once against the Twins on May 31 and another on June 24 against the Mariners .

But for Ashcraft, it's the starts that didn't go as well that still stand out to him.

"There were a couple games where I didn't quite do that or live up to what I expect of myself, and those kind of haunt me a little bit. But again, it's a learning experience. I'm grateful that I was able to come in this year and be able to do what I did."

While Ashcraft joked about trying to convince the medical staff to let him return, the 26-year-old will now look towards getting ready for the 2027 season. Throwing from 90 feet at PNC Park on Friday was the first step of that.

With a successful first full season in the big leagues, Ashcraft's focus will be to build off what he accomplished the next time he's back on the mound for the Pirates.

"I felt great throwing," he said. "I just need to get ready to begin next year in a better spot than I ended this year."