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Perrotto: Paul Skenes Already Looking Forward

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Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates admitted at the start of spring training that there was no blueprint to follow when it came to developing Paul Skenes this past season.



The only two things that general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton were sure of was that Skenes would begin the season at Triple-A Indianapolis and end it with the Pirates. The hope was that the 22-year-old, the first overall pick in the 2023 amateur draft, would still be strong enough to pitch in the big leagues when the season ended in late September.

It turned out that the Pirates handled Skenes flawlessly. He had one of the best seasons by a rookie pitcher in major-league history.

Skenes had an 11-3 record and 1.96 ERA in 23 starts and started for the National League in the All-Star Game. He could become just the second Pirates player to win National League Rookie of the Year, joining Jason Bay, who won in 2004.

Skenes was a bright spot in a disappointing season. The Pirates went 20-32 in their last 52 games to finish with a 76-86 record for a second straight year.

“They did a really good job for me with the plan this year,” Skenes said during the final days of the season. “I didn’t like starting in Triple-A but the plan was, I don’t know if there can be a perfect plan but it was just about perfectly put together. Next year, it’s hopefully just going to be, take the ball and pitch, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Though Skenes was outstanding during his limited appearances during Grapefruit League play in spring training, the Pirates avoided the temptation to have him begin the season in the major leagues.

Instead, Skenes was sent to Indianapolis and his workload incrementally increased. He made seven starts but only once lasted more than 4.1 innings. That came when he pitched six shutout innings in his penultimate start for the Indians.

Skenes pitched four innings in his major-league debut on May 11 against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. However, Skenes went at least five innings in his next 21 starts before pitching two perfect innings against the American League East champion New York Yankees on Sept. 28, the next-to-last day of the season.

Skenes reached the 100-pitch mark nine times and threw at least 90 pitches in 18 of his 23 outings. He finished with 160.1 innings pitched between the majors and minors, a sturdy workload for a pitcher in his first full professional season.

Skenes also pitched on at least five days of rest in every start.

In college at LSU, Skenes pitched only once a week. So, he welcomed the opportunity to take the mound pitch more often.

Skenes desires to pitch on the more traditional four days of rest next season.

“That’s why I’m here: I’m here to pitch,” Skenes said. “So, I want to pitch as much as I can. If you shorten the rest period, you can pitch more as the season goes on. I’m looking forward to that. That’s not something that’s going to be a complete 180 next year from how it is this year but there are going to be a bit fewer restrictions on me.”

Cherington says the Pirates will loosen some of the governors on Skenes next season – to some extent. Don’t expect Skenes to log 250 innings in 2025, though,

“I don’t think we go into spring training with any sort of hard limits,” Cherington said. “I think we always will need to keep assessing over the course of the season just in terms of how guys are holding up and recovery and how the pitch qualities are trending and all that and make real-time decisions inside a decision if we feel guys need a blow or a break.”

Skenes says he has a better idea of how he will train in the offseason to be better prepared for what figures to be his full big-league season next year.

“I’ve learned more about the offseason during this season than I did last offseason,” Skenes said. “The way I think about the offseason isn’t in terms of highs and lows. There’s your time to work and there’s your time to relax. I’m going to have higher highs and lower lows, I think.

“Not more time to relax but when I’m relaxing, I’m going to relax more and when I’m working, I’m going to work harder. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. That set me up really well in spring training and it set me up well, so I’m just going to keep going with that.”

Skenes has no reason to change.

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