Paul Skenes joins Pirates grounds crew before start, reveals desire to cut grass professionally

Turns out, Skenes was just “bored” and wanted to get involved in the grounds crew work. In the photo captured, he was seen in the infield dirt on the first base side. Grass might be of his mojo, though, potentially having an idea of what his post-baseball life looks like.

“Followed up on this,” Noah Hines of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said via X. “Paul said he was out there because he was bored. Added that he would love to cut grass professionally whenever his baseball days are over.”

Well, the baseball days for Skenes are far from over. Another solid outing was put together against the Cardinals, throwing five innings while allowing five hits, no runs, and striking out five. Just one Cardinals batter was able to draw a free base on Skenes. A little better than previous head-to-head matchups.

Most importantly, the Pirates were able to walk away with a win — barely. An eighth-inning run was enough for a 1-0 victory. Pittsburgh remains on a nice run in recent weeks, although it remains in the NL Central cellar by a pretty comfortable margin.

If Skenes was bored on a day when he pitched, you imagine the same will be true on Wednesday. The grounds crew will be out there quite early with first pitch against St. Louis scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET. Maybe if Skenes is willing to arrive before the rest of his teammates, some more grass and dirt work will be available.

If not, Pittsburgh is more than okay with making sure the arm recovers well from his start. Skenes could be on his way to winning the National League Cy Young, something the Pirates have not seen since 1990 with Doug Drabek. Either way, Skenes has been nothing but special for the organization after getting drafted with the No. 1 overall pick out of LSU.