Perrotto: Paul Skenes Wants to Be More Than Ace

Can a starting pitcher be a team leader when he plays only once every fifth or sixth day?

Can a 22-year-old be a team leader at such a young age? Can someone who has played less than one full season in the major leagues have enough gravitas to be a team leader?

Paul Skenes is going to find out this year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The big right-hander and reigning National League Rookie of the Year Award winner wants to become more of a clubhouse presence for a team coming off a second straight 76-86 season.

It’s not that Skenes plans to stand in the middle of the clubhouse and give inspirational speeches. He isn’t ready to call out teammates in public.

However, Skenes would like to help set the tone on and off the field,

“I don’t know what the character of that will be, but I’ll have probably a little more say so and obviously having established myself a little bit but there’s still a long way to go,” Skenes said. “I’m not going to overstep but winning is winning. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to make it happen.

“I’m just going to listen to my gut,” he said. “But I want us to do the things that are necessary to win.”

Winning is something the Pirates haven’t done much of over the last three decades.

They have finished below .500 in 28 of the last 32 seasons and each of the past six seasons. They haven’t been to the postseason since 2015. They haven’t won a playoff series since rallying past the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 World Series.

Some of the Pirates’ problems stem from a lack of attention to detail. They’ve lost their share of games over the past few years because of fundamental mistakes.

The Pirates also don’t carry themselves like winners. Good teams have a certain amount of cohesiveness, and I don’t get that feeling when I visit their clubhouse.

Of course, that leads to an age-old baseball question: Does good clubhouse culture lead to more winning, or does more winning cause better clubhouse culture?

It’s not that the Pirates have any bad guys in their clubhouse. It’s just that they’ve been lacking leaders in recent years, part of which stems from building young and inexpensive rosters.

So, what does a winning clubhouse feel like? It’s difficult for Skenes to answer because of his lack of experience.

However, Skenes wants to do what he can to change the vibe and is confident that it can happen in 2025.

“In the short time I’ve been here, we’ve had buy-in,” Skenes said. “There are a lot of guys, and guys that frankly I wouldn’t have expected it from are talking about changing some things in the clubhouse and that kind of thing. Because we had a good clubhouse last year, but it wasn’t anything crazy.

“The nature of pro locker rooms compared to college locker rooms is just going to be different so I learned a lot about how a pro locker room is last year but I’ve also learned, the experience of last year and talking to guys this offseason who have won World Series and played for 15 years in the show, that kind of thing, learned about how a locker room should be too so we’re going to work on getting it there and we’ve started already.”

It takes guts for a 22-year-old to assume such an important role. However, Skenes has already earned the respect of his teammates with his on-field performance and how he conducts himself in the clubhouse.

When he talks, they are going to listen.