Pitt’s steady Sunday starter with strikeout pop and bounce-back grit
In the 2026 season, Drew Lafferty has been Pittsburgh’s Sunday starter again, and that role alone tells you Pitt trusts his competitive edge and durability. He showed swing-and-miss ability with a seven-strikeout outing in five innings early in the year, but his season line has been uneven, sitting at 4-3 with a 5.83 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 41.2 innings by late April, so the upside is real but the command/consistency still needs sharpening. If your staff wants a competitor who has already handled weekend pressure and can miss bats when he’s right, he’s intriguing; if you need a polished, low-variance ace, not quite yet.
