Paul Skenes Sends Message to Pirates Fans
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Pirates not only have one of the best pitchers in baseball in Paul Skenes, who just won National League Rookie of the Year, but have a star who loves the city he plays in.
Skenes received incredible support this season after the Pirates called up the 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick in May. Fans packed PNC Park routinely for his starts, as he showed everyone what he truly is made of in a fantastic 2024 campaign.
He has also had opportunities to see Pittsburgh outside of playing baseball, enjoying the city itself. He went to the most recent Pittsburgh Steelers game with girlfriend Livvy Dunne, watching the home team defeat the rival Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium.
Skenes sees the solidarity and camraderie between the sports teams and how much fans come out to support them, including the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL.
He wants to bring that energy for every single Pirates games and that winning culture to PNC Park for years to come.
"To be able to have a city unite around people and teams, that was probably one of the coolest things about going to the Steelers game yesterday," Skenes said.
"It was just seeing that and seeing how they unite, because I saw it all year with how they treated us and seeing how they treated other teams was really cool too. That's something that I think is going to be huge in creating an identity for our team going forward and identifying with the city that we're in cause it's an awesome city and we owe it to them to go out there and win.
"So really fired up about the opportunity for next year, but this past year's been unbelievable for me and definitely not going to take it for granted."
“It’s an awesome city, and we owe it to them to go out there and win, so we’re really fired up about the opportunity for next year.”
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) November 19, 2024
Paul Skenes's message to Pittsburgh following his Rookie of the Year award 🥹 pic.twitter.com/XDEg7C5eox
Skenes starred at LSU in 2023, after transferring from Air Force. He had a 13-2 record in 19 starts, 1.69 ERA in 122.2 innings pitched, gave up just 23 earned runs and seven earned runs, while making 209 strikeouts to just 20 walks, leading the program to a National Title that season.
He would enter the 2023 MLB Draft, where the Pirates took him with the No. 1 overall pick. He also signed with the franchise on a $9.2 million signing bonus, the highest ever given to a player.
Skenes dominated in the minor leagues and soon made it up to the majors on May 11 of the 2024 season.
He started 23 games, had a 1.96 ERA in 133.0 innings pitched, allowed just 29 earned runs, 94 hits, six home runs and 32 walks, while making 170 strikeouts and holding opposing hitting to a .198 batting average. He also had a 11.50 K/9 and a WHIP of 0.95.
Skenes was also the first member of the Pirates to start for the National League in the All-Star Game since Jerry Reuss did it in 1975, 49 years ago. He is also just the fifth rookie to start an All-Star game, with Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers doing so in 1995, en route to winning NL Rookie of the Year.
He is just the second Nationa League Rookie of the Year winner for the Pirates, joining outfielder Jason Bay in 2004.
