'Perfectly put together': Pirates phenom Paul Skenes reflects on limitations of rookie season

As Paul Skenes reflects on a historically dominant rookie season, the Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher knows there's one thing he would change if he could.

“Yeah, I wish it wasn’t over yet,” Skenes said Wednesday. “I just wish we could keep it going a little longer.”

Before Skenes made his final start of the season with the New York Yankees this weekend, he praised the Pirates for the way they had communicated their plans to handle his workload in his first professional season.

That started with a slow increase in spring training to controlled innings and pitch counts at Triple-A Indianapolis, giving him an extra day of rest between starts in the majors to prevent a season-ending shutdown.

“They did a really good job with the plan for me this year,” Skenes said. “I didn't like starting in Triple-A, but the plan was… I don't know if there can be a perfect plan, but it was put together almost perfectly. Hopefully next year it’ll just be, ‘Take the ball and throw,’ so I’m looking forward to that.”

The results are undeniable. Skenes (11-3, 1.99 ERA) leads the Pirates with 167 strikeouts and has the most wins on the team, despite not making his major league debut until May 11. He was the first pitcher in the modern era of baseball to hit a sub. 2.00 and more than 150 strikeouts in the first 22 starts of his major league career.

The Pirates admitted from the start that they had no playbook to follow, only that they were trying to protect the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft from fatigue and the risk of serious injury. That included being allowed to start the season in the minor leagues, where Skenes was limited to 27 1/3 innings in seven starts.

What made it more of a challenge was Skenes' immediate success after making his major league debut. In his second start with the Chicago Cubs, he recorded 11 strikeouts in six hitless innings, struck out Shohei Ohtani in his first appearance against baseball's first 50/50 player, and became the National League's all-time starting pitcher. Star Game named.

But the Pirates stuck to the script and had him pitch every sixth day instead of the usual five. It wasn't so much about limiting the number of throws he made – Skenes hit 100 nine times – but rather about minimizing the strain on his powerful right arm.

Skenes threw 26 2/3 innings as a freshman reliever at the Air Force Academy, 85 2/3 as a two-way player who also caught as a sophomore, and 122 2/3 innings as a full-time starter as a junior at LSU, with an additional 6 2/3 across three levels of the minor leagues.

Although Skenes wanted to throw more innings – he only got past six four times – Pirates manager Derek Shelton believes he understands why the club has been so diligent in enforcing its restrictions.

“I don’t think he was in love with it, but I’m in love with the fact that he wasn’t in love with it,” Shelton said. “He wanted to pitch. He wanted more. I think now he realizes what our end goal was, and if we had done something sooner it would have been more difficult.”

Skenes is ready for a return to normality next year and welcomes the idea of ​​pitching every fifth day.

“That’s why I’m here: I’m here to pitch, so I want to pitch as much as I can,” Skenes said. “If you shorten the rest period, you can pitch more over the course of the season. I'm looking forward to that. Compared to this year, next year it won’t be a complete 180, but for me there will be a little less restrictions.”