Two Pirates Crack Top 50 Rookies List
If there's any reason for optimism with the Pittsburgh Pirates, it's having Paul Skenes and Jared Jones atop their starting rotation for the foreseeable future.
Bleacher Report ranked the top 50 rookies from the 2024 season and Skenes earned the top spot, beating out San Diego Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill. Jones was ranked No. 27 for his rookie season and likely would have had a chance to ascend the list if it wasn't for a strained right lat costing him almost two months of the season.
While Bleacher Report noted having Merrill over Skenes would have been a more than reasonable decision, the historic season from the 2023 No. 1 overall pick cemented him as the top rookie in 2024.
"If he had been on the Opening Day roster, there's a very real chance he would have joined Fernando Valenzuela as just the second rookie pitcher in MLB history to take home Cy Young honors," Bleacher Report wrote. "The National League starter in the All-Star Game, he was pulled from a no-hitter not once, but twice, and he did not allow more than six hits or four earned runs in any of his 23 starts. All of that while he was less than a year removed from playing college ball."
Skenes was everything the Pirates could have hoped for and then some. The hard-throwing right-hander was 11-3 with a 1.93 ERA across 23 starts and had a 5.9 WAR. He also struck out 170 batters over 133 innings pitched.
Skenes broke the Pirates record for most strikeouts in a season by a rookie and he was the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA below 2.20 and over 150 punchouts through the first 21 appearances of their career. He was also the first pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through their first 22 appearances in the MLB.
Jones began his rookie season in the big leagues and impressed from the start. Before the All-Star Break, Jones was 5-6 with a 3.56 ERA through 16 starts. He struggled to maintain that success afterward, going 1-2 with a 5.87 ERA in his six starts.
"Jones pitched his way into Pittsburgh's rotation with a terrific spring training and looked like the early NL Rookie of the Year favorite when he posted a 3.05 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 59 innings over his first 10 starts," Bleacher Report wrote. "He made just two total starts in July and August while nursing a lat strain and didn't have the same electric stuff down the stretch, but he still finished with a 4.14 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 132 strikeouts in 121.2 innings. He is a key piece of a promising young Pirates rotation."
