Pirates' Paul Skenes Ranked In Top Five Starting Pitchers
Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes quickly cemented himself as one of baseball's best pitchers.
After a historic first season that earned him the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, Skenes ranked among the elite pitchers in baseball for Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter, as he was fourth in his top 25 pitchers for the 2024 season. Skenes only trailed Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, Atlanta Braves veteran left-hander Chris Sale and Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler.
Skubal won the American League Cy Young award, while Sale earned the accolade for the National League. Wheeler was the runner-up to Sale, while Skenes finished in third place in the Cy Young vote.
"If Paul Skenes had broken camp with a spot in the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation, he might have joined Fernando Valenzuela as the only other rookie in MLB history to also take home Cy Young honors," Reuter writes. "As it stands, he settled for unanimous NL Rookie of the Year, third in Cy Young balloting and an All-Star Game start while taking the league by storm less than a year after he went No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft. The 22-year-old's future is as bright as any young player in the sport."
Skenes was the first rookie pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year in franchise history for the Pirates. He was the second player to achieve the feat, joining outfielder Jason Bay in 2004.
Skenes turned in one of the best rookie seasons in MLB history, going 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts and he set a Pirates rookie record with 170 strikeouts over 133 innings pitched. The Pirates ace was also the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA below 2.20 and over 150 strikeouts in their first 21 games and the second pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through their first 22 appearances.
Skenes was also the first rookie pitcher to start an All-Star game since Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995.
