Pirates' Bryan Reynolds, Paul Skenes Earn Team Awards
The Pittsburgh Pirates have largely been led at the plate by left fielder Bryan Reynolds and rookie right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes.
Now, they have some hardware to back up their importance to the team.
Reynolds was named the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, which goes to the team MVP and is voted by members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Skenes won the Steve Blass Award, which goes to the team's top pitcher.
Reynolds has now won the Clemente Award for the third time in his career, joining Andrew McCutchen, Dave Parker and Andy Van Slyke as the only ones to win the award at least three times. McCutchen has won the accolade six times, the most in Pirates history.
“Anytime you get in the same sentence as those kind of players, it’s pretty special and pretty cool just being mentioned with them,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds, 29, has had another strong season, batting .276 with 22 home runs and 85 RBIs heading through 151 games heading into Wednesday. The Pirates left fielder has hit at least 20 home runs in four consecutive seasons and driven in at least 80 RBIs in three of the last four.
Skenes, 22, has set the baseball world ablaze with his historic start to his career, going 11-3 with a 1.99 ERA. The flamethrowing right-hander is the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA under 2.20 and over 150 strikeouts through 21 starts. He's also just the second pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through 22 appearances.
Skenes' 11 wins are tied for first on the Pirates with Mitch Keller and leads the team in strikeouts despite not being called up and making his first start until May 11. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick finished second in voting for the Clemente Award.
The Pirates (73-84) face the Milwaukee Brewers (90-67) on Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. ET at PNC Park.
NATHANIEL MARRERO