Skenes reflects on restrictions of rookie season

As Paul Skenes reflected on a rookie season that’s been historically dominant, the Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher knows one thing he would change if he could.

“Yeah, I wish it weren’t ending yet,” Skenes said Wednesday. “Just wish we could keep it rolling a little bit longer.”

Before making his final start of the season this weekend at the New York Yankees, Skenes credited the Pirates for how they communicated their plans to manage his workload in his first professional season.

That started with a slow ramp-up in spring training to controlled innings and pitch counts at Triple-A Indianapolis to giving him an extra day of rest between starts in the majors to prevent a late-season shutdown.

“They did a really good job for me with the plan this year,” Skenes said. “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.”

The results are indisputable. Skenes (11-3, 1.99 ERA) leads the Pirates with 167 strikeouts and is tied for the most wins on the team despite not making his major league debut until May 11. The 6-foot-6, 260-pounder became the first pitcher in baseball’s modern era to post a sub-2.00 and more than 150 strikeouts through the first 22 starts of his major league career.

The Pirates professed from the start that they didn’t have a playbook to follow, only that they were trying to protect the No. 1 overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft from fatigue and the risk of serious injury. That included having him start the season in the minor leagues, where Skenes was limited to 27 1/3 innings over seven starts.

What made it more of a challenge was Skenes’ instant success once he made his major league debut. He had 11 strikeouts in six no-hit innings at the Chicago Cubs in his second start, struck out Shohei Ohtani the first time he faced baseball’s first 50/50 player and was named the National League’s starting pitcher for the All-Star Game.

Yet the Pirates stuck to the script, having him pitch every sixth day instead of the typical five. It wasn’t so much about limiting his pitch count – Skenes topped 100 nine times – but rather minimizing the stress on his powerful right arm.

Skenes went from throwing 26 2/3 innings as a freshman reliever at the Air Force Academy to 85 2/3 as a twoway player who also caught as a sophomore to 122 2/3 innings as a full-time starter as a junior at LSU, with an additional 6 2/3 over three levels of the minor leagues.

Even though Skenes wanted to throw more innings – he only went past six four times – Pirates manager Derek Shelton believes that he understands why the club was so diligent in enforcing its restrictions.

“I don’t think he was in love with it – which I’m in love with the fact that he wasn’t in love with it,” Shelton said. “He wanted to pitch. He wanted more. I think now he realized what our end goal was, and if we would’ve done something sooner, it would’ve been more challenging.”

Skenes is ready for a return to normalcy next year, welcoming the idea of pitching every fifth day.

“That’s why I’m here: I’m here to pitch, so I want to pitch as much as I can,” Skenes said. “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.”

As careful as the Pirates were with Skenes, they were impressed with how he expanded his pitch repertoire in the span of the season. After relying primarily on his four-seam fastball and slider at LSU, Skenes added complementary pitches with a splinker (a splitter-sinker hybrid), a sweeper and a changeup with impressive results.

His fastball can top triple digits, averaging 96.8 mph, and Skenes’ 32.9% strikeout rate ranks in the 95th percentile, per Statcast. Opponents are hitting below the Mendoza Line against his splinker (.184), sweeper (.106) and curveball (.088), which Skenes threw only eight times against the Cincinnati Reds but got seven whiffs and six of his nine strikeouts.

“I think it’s rare,” Shelton said. “You don’t see guys that are able to add to their arsenal their first year in the big leagues. They’re trying to throw strikes. They’re trying to execute pitches. They’re trying to get hitters out. Not that he wasn’t trying to do all those things, but to do it and add to it at the same time, I think it just shows you how special a player he is.”

Shelton called Skenes a “continuous learner,” and Skenes said he has developed an awareness of how and when to throw which pitches against major league hitters, giving a tip of the cap to veteran catcher Yasmani Grandal for his pitch calling and sequencing.

“It’s not like we’re just punching X and O and triangle or whatever it is in The Show,” Skenes said, referring to the video game. “It’s like, ‘Well, I have it, so I might as well throw it.’ We’ve gotten to that point a little bit where I can get guys out with two pitches, three pitches, whatever it is, but being able to get guys out with all five has been really fun.”