In July of 2023, the Pittsburgh Pirates made Paul Skenes the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft. Just one season later, Skenes is now ready to make his major league debut.
Pittsburgh is calling up their top prospect with Skenes slated to start on Saturday against the Chicago Cubs. Watching the Pirates pitching staff through the early part of the season, Skenes couldn’t be more amped up to join their ranks, via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com.
“It’s been really fun to watch,” Skenes said. “I’ve obviously been watching as a fan for the past month or so. But yeah, I’m excited.”
The top prospect said that the day he found out he got called up, he was in the middle of a nap. He missed three calls from his manager. Once he finally returned them, both parties had some playful banter before it was revealed Skenes had received the first major league call up of his career, via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
As Skenes has watched Pittsburgh’s pitching rotation, he has seen a unit that has vastly improved from a season prior. The Pirates rank 11th in the league with a 3.70 ERA. Their .231 batting average against ranks 10th while their 113 walks allowed are the ninth-fewest in the league.
The Pirates have been led by sensational rookie Jared Jones. Now, Paul Skenes is ready to give Pittsburgh yet another impressive young gun in their rotation.
How Paul Skenes earned his Pirates call up
Before he even joined Pittsburgh, Skenes tantalized at the college level with LSU. After transferring from Air Force for the 2023 season, Skenes put up a 13-2 record with a 1.69 ERA and a 209/20 K/BB ratio. The Pirates saw all they needed to make him the No. 1 overall pick.
And the right-hander quickly proved why Pittsburgh was correct in their decision. He climbed all the way up to Double-A during his first of professional baseball. Skenes then began the 2024 season at Triple-A, where he put up a sterling 0.99 ERA and a 45/8 K/BB ratio over his seven starts.
His work at both LSU and in the minors has caught the eyes of numerous MLB evaluators. Skenes ranks as the No. 1 prospect in the Pirates’ organization and the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball, via MLB Pipeline. Now, Pittsburgh is ready to see what they have in Paul Skenes.
His arrival comes at a time where the Pirates are struggling to stay afloat in the NL Central. At 17-21 and losing seven of their last ten games, Pittsburgh is 5.5 games back of the division leading Milwaukee Brewers.
On Saturday, the Pirates will have ample opportunity make up ground on the second place Cubs. All eyes will be on Skenes as he makes his MLB debut. If it goes as well as the Pirates and Skenes are hoping for, those eyes will be continuing to watch the star prospect for the remainder of the major league season.
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