Pirates to promote top prospect Paul Skenes to major leagues

PITTSBURGH — The wait is finally over. Paul Skenes, the organization’s No. 1 prospect, will be promoted to the big leagues.

Rated baseball’s top pitching prospect by MLB Pipeline, Skenes will join the Pirates for their weekend series against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. He is expected to make his MLB debut at 4:05 p.m. Saturday.

It’s a moment that should attract plenty of national attention toward the Pirates given how popular Skenes has become across the sport.

In the Pirates’ eyes, though, they’ll likely talk about this being the next box to check after his latest outing in the minor leagues: 4 1/3 innings, three hits, two earned runs, two walks, four strikeouts and one homer allowed on 66 pitches in his start Sunday.

The Pirates selected Skenes out of LSU with the first overall pick in last year’s draft. The 6-foot-6 right-hander established himself as a national phenomenon last summer, going 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA en route to leading the Tigers to a national championship. Numerous scouts and analysts deemed Skenes the sport’s best college pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg.

After inking a deal with the Pirates in late July — which included a $9.2 million signing bonus — Skenes made his professional debut with the Pirates’ rookie ball team on Aug. 10, 2023. He then pitched twice for Single-A Bradenton and Double-A Altoona before his season was shut down in early September.

“They made the recommendation of, ‘Hey, this is good. We’re good for this year. Let’s focus on a full offseason and full 2024,’ ” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington told reporters a few days later. “We got that recommendation from them later [Monday] night and communicated that with Paul today. Simple as that.”

Skenes entered 2024 as the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball, behind only Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday and Milwaukee's Jackson Chourio. But despite flashing his elite potential throughout spring training, the Pirates approached Skenes’ buildup for the season with caution.

Just one day after his first outing in Bradenton, Fla., the club announced Skenes would start the regular season with Triple-A Indianapolis. The club was not shy when it came to their conservative approach with Skenes, who had a hard innings limit and pitch count cutoff each time he took the mound for the Indians.

“There’s a plan that they came up with a long time ago,” Skenes told the Post-Gazette after his first start of the season. “I respect that. The temptation is probably there, but I’m never going to ask [to stay in a game] because I know what the plan is. Frankly, the pitching coaches that are here, I can air it out to them, but they’re not the ones making the decision either.”

In seven starts, Skenes dominated opposing minor league hitters, boasting a 0.99 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 45 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings of work. The hype surrounding the 6-foot-6, 235-pound righty extends far outside of Pittsburgh, as MLB made each of his starts free to watch via livestream.

A traditional power pitcher, 98 of the 422 pitches Skenes threw this season have been clocked at over 100 mph. His top pitch is his four-seam fastball, which he has thrown 198 times (46.9%) at an average of 99.9 mph. His secondary pitches include a slider, split-finger, change-up and curveball.

“I was excited when we drafted him, just because he is a talented kid,” manager Derek Shelton said of Skenes before Monday’s game against the Angels. “I was excited last year when he pitched. I was excited in spring training. The fact that we have a person that is this talented, yeah, that’s exciting.”

Skenes has been a head-turning prospect since signing with the Pirates, his triple-digit fastball serving as his most famous weapon.

But as much as Skenes has pitched with power, he has also shown some finesse, sequencing pitches and locating far more consistently than someone his age normally would.

Along the way, Skenes has energized Pirates fans with his dominance, allowing folks to dream about a top of the rotation that includes not only Skenes but Jared Jones, as well.

Soon, that dream will become reality.