Fastball

Pittsburgh Pirates Flamethrower Paul Skenes Adds $2.1 Million to Earnings

After winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award, Skenes had added nicely to his wallet as well.

Brady Farkas

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes (30) delivers a pitch to Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki (27) during the first inning at PNC Park on Aug 28.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes (30) delivers a pitch to Chicago Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki (27) during the first inning at PNC Park on Aug 28. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes put together an incredible 2024 season, becoming one of the best young players in all of baseball.

While he spent the entirety of the season adding to his baseball resume, he also added $2.1 million to his bank account this week through Major League Baseball's pre-arbitration bonus system.

The Associated Press put out the full list of earners here, and MLBTradeRumors did a great job explaining how it all works.

The most recent collective bargaining agreement introduced a $50MM pool that is divided among players who have yet to accrue enough service time to reach arbitration. (Each team commits around $1.67MM to that fund every season.) The goal was to help highly-performing young players get paid earlier in their careers. Players are eligible even if they’ve signed a contract extension, as Witt did before the season

Skenes beat out Jackson Merrill (San Diego Padres) and Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee Brewers) to win the Rookie of the Year Award, becoming the fifth former No. 1 draft pick to win Rookie of the Year honors. In addition to the award, Skenes also started the All-Star Game for the National League.

Skenes finished his rookie season at 11-3 with that 1.96 ERA. He struck out 170 batters in just 133.0 innings and looked every bit the part of an ace moving into 2025. Skenes made his major league debut in early May after just a handful of minor league starts and instantly made his presence felt. With Skenes and Jared Jones, the Pirates and their fans finally look to have some optimism moving forward.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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