Pirates' Paul Skenes Gets Special Trading Card Design

This marks Season 2 of the partnership with Bob Ross and the MLB, with Season 1 coming out in 2023. This collection shows the greatest baseball players in the MLB, old and new, with the famous backgrounds of Bob Ross' paintings, with spectcular landscapes.

Ross (1942-95) is most famous for hosting "The Joy of Painting" a television show on PBS where he showed his painting process and completed a painting over the 30-minute episode, showing his beautiful landscapes.

Skenes has a sensational, white mountain landscape behind him, also with a winter theme, featuring both white bushes and pine trees.

Skenes will feature in the Season 2 edition, along with some of the top players in the MLB, including both 2024 National League MVP in Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter/right-handed starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani and 2024 American League MVP in New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.

It also includes Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, New York Yankees right fielder Juan Soto and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.

Skenes already had a 1/1 rookie patch autograph card that sold at an auction for $1.1 million, which a lucky 11-year old found and donated the funds for victims of the fires in the Los Angeles area late last year. Dick's Sporting Goods bought the card and displayed it around Pittsburgh.

His girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, also bought a rare Skenes anime baseball card by Bowman's Best at Fanatics Fest in New York City on June 21.

Skenes has had a sensational 2025 season, depsite a 5-8 record in 21 starts, as the Pirates offense has scored four runs or less in 17 of those outings.

He ranks amongst the best pitches in the MLB, with both the lowest ERA (1.91) and opposing batting average (.186), fifth lowest WHIP (0.91), seventh most innings pitched (127.0) and the ninth most strikeouts (137).

Skenes started his second All-Star Game for the National League at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, on July 15, throwing a scoreless first inning with two strikeouts.

He became the first pitcher that started two All-Star games in their first two seasons in the league and just the second Pirates pitcher that started for the NL twice, along with Bob Friend, who did so in 1956 and 1960.

Skenes had an incredible rookie season, as he started 23 games, had a 1.96 ERA in 133.0 innings pitched, allowed just 29 earned runs, 94 hits, six home runs and 32 walks, while making 170 strikeouts and holding opposing hitting to a .198 batting average. He also had a 11.50 K/9 and a WHIP of 0.95.

He was the first member of the Pirates that started for the NL in the All-Star Game since Jerry Reuss did it in 1975, 49 years ago. He was also just the fifth rookie that started an All-Star game, with Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers doing so in 1995, en route to winning NL Rookie of the Year.

Skenes also made the All-MLB First Team for his performance in 2024, won NL Rookie of the Year and was a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award.