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Perrotto: You’ve Got to Love Old-School Paul Skenes

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Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates

One thing consistently bothered Paul Skenes during his fantastic 2024 rookie season.



The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander consistently talked about his need to be more pitch efficient and work deeper into games. He wanted to be the staff workhorse, the pitcher who provides – to use his word – “volume” of innings pitched.

Skenes pitched 133 innings over 23 starts last season while winning the National League Rookie of the Year award. That worked out to an average of 5.8 a start, an acceptable amount for a 22-year-old being held to an innings limit in his first full professional season. Add in the 27.1 innings he threw for Triple-A Indianapolis and his season innings pitched total was 160.1.

I asked Skenes on Sunday at PiratesFest what the ideal number of innings he would pitch this year would be. He gave a startling answer by today’s standards, but one that would bring a smile to any old-school baseball person’s face.

240.

240!

No major-league pitcher has reached 240 innings since 2014 when David Price pitched 248.1 combined with the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers and Johnny Cueto logged 243.2 for the San Francisco Giants.

Heck, 200-inning pitchers are becoming extinct. Just four major leaguers hit that mark last season – the Seattle Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (208.2), the Kansas City Royals’ Seth Lugo (206.2), the Giants’ Logan Webb (204.2) and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler (200).

Now, Skenes is a realist. He knows the Pirates won’t allow him to pitch 240 innings.

A guy can dream, though.

“I’m gonna be ready to throw 240 innings. It’s not gonna be 160 innings again. I know that,” Skenes said. “It’s gonna be much more, ‘Take the ball and pitch.’ We haven’t spoken about it, but it doesn’t affect … frankly I felt that I was ready to throw 240 innings last year, too. You don’t know what you don’t know. I think toward the end of the season I did know that my body was built up for it. I felt good in September.

“That kind of told me that what I did last offseason was right. The training that I did during the season, too. Obviously, you don’t want to be built up for 160 and throw 185. That’s stupid. Build up for 240 and land where we land.”

If that isn’t enough to warm the hearts of fans of inning-eating pitchers, then Skenes’ desire to get back to Bradenton for the start of spring training should do the trick. He hates the offseason and has been ready for it to end since the final days of October.

“Offseason’s way too long, so looking forward to getting back into it,” Skenes said. “I had my three weeks off and then it was like, ‘All right, let’s do it again.’ It’s been long, fan fest has been a long time coming, spring training has been a long time coming for that even though we’re not there yet. But, looking forward to that. Just ready to go.”

Skenes’ talent is undeniable. He had an 11-3 record and a 1.96 ERA last season with 170 strikeouts in his 133 innings. Yet what separates him from other great players is his love for the game and desire to get better.

“There are a couple things that I’ve been focusing on this offseason, basically just throwing more strikes, attacking the zone, getting hitters out faster and then just keep learning,” Skenes said. “Learning outing by outing. We’ve learned some stuff from last year that we’ll transfer over kind of as an overarching thing into the next season. Just continue to just learn the game, learn from outing to outing and just go from there.”

With that attitude, seeing what Skenes might do for an encore in 2025 is intriguing.

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