Pirates Coach Hints At Larger Workload For Paul Skenes In 2025
The training wheels are coming off for Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes.
On the heels of a historic first season that saw Skenes win the National League Rookie of the Year and receive votes for the NL Cy Young Award and NL MVP, Pirates manager Derek Shelton hinted toward Skenes having a much larger workload in his second season. Shelton also noted that with Skenes' size being 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds, he feels Pittsburgh's ace is more than capable handling it in stride.
"In Paul's case, he's going to be a different situation because there's not many guys built like him and have the ability to have the workload," Shelton said. "I think we're going to see him be one of those guys [who] is able to handle volume when he needs to."
Skenes went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and struck out a Pirates rookie-record 170 batters over 133 innings pitched, which was a slight uptick from his 122.2 innings pitched in his final collegiate season with the LSU Tigers. While Skenes had a slight increase in innings pitched, Pittsburgh was much more cautious compared to the Tigers when it came to the number of pitches he threw per start.
Skenes threw at least 100 pitches in nine starts for Pittsburgh, which pales in comparison to his 2023 season with LSU. The Pirates ace threw at least 100 pitches in 13 of his 19 starts for the Tigers, and among those 13 starts, Skenes threw at least 110 pitches on seven different occasions.
Skenes only reached 100 pitches two times in his final nine starts for Pittsburgh.
Part of Pittsburgh's caution with Skenes was the team being out of the playoff race in the final month and the naturally careful approach nearly every team has with a rookie pitcher. While that may have been frustrating at the time, the Pirates will have a chance to have a full season with Skenes healthy and part of the reason for that is them not pushing their ace in games when they didn't have a shot at the postseason.
And with what could very well be a make-or-break season for the Pirates' front office and coaching staff in 2025, a fully healthy Skenes gives his team the best chance to snap their nine-year streak of missing the playoffs.
"I do think that organizationally, we did a good job of handling Paul this year," Shelton said. "And more importantly, he did a good job of taking the information. If you guys have spent any time around him, this kid wants to pitch. He wants the ball. He would pitch on old school, three days rest, if we would let him. There were times he pushed like, 'Hey, I want to go. I want to go.' And ultimately, I think it turned out right. We have a healthy pitcher going in next year, which is important."
