Pirates' Paul Skenes Predicted to Win Major Award
As the 2024 MLB regular season comes to a close, Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes has established himself as the National League Rookie of the Year favorite.
The Athletic's Jim Bowden, who was previously the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, has predicted that Skenes will triumph over center fielders Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio of the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, respectively, in the final push for the award.
"Skenes should win this race over Merrill and Chourio in my mind, but again, we need two awards — one for rookie pitchers and one for rookie position players," Bowden wrote. "However, Skenes deserves this year’s award, going 10-3 with a 2.07 ERA and 158 strikeouts in 126 innings (21 starts). He also started the All-Star Game for the National League."
The race was neck-and-neck between Skenes and Merrill, in particular, for quite some time, especially towards the beginning of the second half.
Skenes bumped into a rough patch, at least by his standards, in early August as he allowed eight earned runs over 17 1/3 innings in his first three starts of the month.
Merrill and the Padres, meanwhile, were red-hot at that same time after a massive trade deadline haul helped the team claim one of the best records in baseball and seize a playoff spot.
Neither the team nor Merrill, who is hitting .292/.326/.503 with 24 home runs and 89 RBIs, have slown down, as the Padres currently hold a 90-66 record and are tracking towards hosting a Wild Card series as the No. 4 seed in the National League.
It's possible he would've came away with the award in most seasons, but this isn't a normal year.
Skenes is currently in peak form, and his accomplishments are almost unheard of for a rookie pitcher, making it increasingly hard to foresee a world where a majority of the first-place votes go in a direction that isn't his.
After taking down the Pirates' rookie strikeout record and making history after seemingly every outing, there isn't much else for Skenes to accomplish this season. He's already one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's only going to improve from this point forward.
