Pirates' Carmen Mlodzinski: Ousted from rotation

The Pirates are expected to option Mlodzinski to Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday, Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reports.

After working primarily in relief over his first two seasons in the big leagues, Mlodzinski surprisingly emerged from spring training as a member of the Pirates' Opening Day rotation, but he always appeared to be little more than a placeholder until one of Pittsburgh's many starting pitching prospects was deemed big-league ready. Right-hander Mike Burrows is in line to get a call-up from Triple-A and will enter the rotation Thursday against the Brewers in place of Mlodzinski, who covered five innings in just three of his nine starts on the season while submitting a 5.67 ERA, 1.61 WHIP and 8.9 K-BB%. He'll presumably stay stretched out as a member of the rotation at Indianapolis, though Mlodzinski could work out of the bullpen the next time he gets the call back to the big club.