A Year of Skenes, But No Progress from Pirates

Sunday marks the first anniversary of the major league debut of Paul Skenes with the Pittsburgh Pirates. It will also be Mother’s Day, but unfortunately, the Pirates end Wednesday’s action with a record that more easily calls to mind Boxing Day at 12-26. They sit in last place in the National League Central Division, already 10 1/2 games out of first place. It feels like the season is over.

Last year in the NL, it took 89 wins to get into the postseason. To reach that many wins in 2025, the Pirates must finish 77-47 the rest of the way, a .621 winning percentage. They don’t seem to have that in them. Not even with the influx of young pitching prospects expected to join them later in the summer. Not even with the expected return of injured players Nick Gonzales, Spencer Horwitz, and Jared Jones. Certainly not with a team slash line of .221/.304/.330 as of Tuesday’s action and no Triple-A hitting prospects on the horizon.

The Pirates and Paul Skenes: One Year Together

Skenes, as every baseball fan knows, is a once-in-a-lifetime player. The big right-handed pitcher was the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2023 Amateur Draft. His rapid ascent to the major leagues included being named to start the All-Star Game for the NL and winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award. He finished 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 0.947 WHIP, and 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings (SO/9).

So far, this year he’s 3-4 with a 2.77 ERA. Despite the drop-off, he remains one of the best pitchers in baseball. His 0.945 WHIP isn’t far off from last year’s figure. His SO/9 has decreased to 8.7, due to a concerted effort on his part to pitch to contact and not reach his pitch count so early. As a result, at times, he hasn’t looked as dominant as he did in 2024. In tough situations, he needs to rear back and rely on the hard stuff. But the biggest contributing factor to his alleged performance decline has been the fact that the team he’s pitching for just isn’t very good. As a matter of fact, they’re bad. They’re probably not as good as last year’s 76-86 Pirates.

Pirates Have a Short Window with Skenes

Aye, there’s the rub, as Hamlet said – or maybe it was Shaquille O’Neal in an Icy Hot commercial. In any event, by not adding or developing hitters to provide offense for their pitching staff, general manager Ben Cherington is not only missing out on a short window the Pirates have to contend, but he’s the only person in Pittsburgh who doesn’t seem to realize this. (Another factor in the Pirates’ poor record is their lack of fundamentals. That reflects on manager Derek Shelton, not Cherington. The rash of injuries hasn’t helped, either.)

Bypassing better, affordable options like Max Kepler, Cherington traded for Horwitz and signed Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier. Horwitz may develop into a good hitter. In 112 games, less than the equivalent of a full major league season, Horwitz has hit .264/.355/.428, 13 HR, and 47 RBI. However, Pham has been a major disappointment, coming into Wednesday hitting .178/.257/.218 without a home run. Lately, he’s shared left field with Alexander Canario, who’s 5-for-41, despite both being right-handed batters. One of the factors in signing Pham, 37, was that he would be a team leader. Yet, the word is that this Pirates team has been a bit down in the mouth lately.

Meanwhile, Kepler, whom the Philadelphia Phillies signed for $10 million, is hitting .255/.341/.455, 5 HR, and 11 RBI. Those five homers would be tied for second place on the Pirates. Back in February, I gave Cherington’s offseason a grade of D on these pages. I should have given him a Z-.

The Process

Cherington speaks as though he’s former Pirates GM Joe L. Brown, who held the position from 1955-76, oversaw the World Series champions of 1960 and 1971, and had the job for as long as he wanted it. It’s as though Cherington expects to be with Pittsburgh for as long as it takes to build a winner. But the Pirates are in the sixth year of what was supposed to be a five-year plan.

Cherington has been preaching patience. Just wait, he says, and the Pirates’ process will pay off. He’s a big believer in his process, as if that’s a cure-all. But the fans are out of patience. One wonders when owner Bob Nutting runs out of patience, too, and looks for a new GM.

A popular theory around town is that Skenes may be out of patience with the Pirates, too. He’s never said any such thing for public consumption. Rather, he speaks as though he’s all-in. Recently, he’s said that he’s anxious for the day when he’s a teammate of the Pirates’ No. 1 prospect, pitcher Bubba Chandler. That doesn’t sound like somebody who’s anxious to get out of Pittsburgh.