Paul Skenes admits World Baseball Classic affected his season

For the first time in his short three-year MLB career, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes looked like he wasn't completely dominant and overpowering hitters.

Skenes struggled for the majority of this season, and many fans wondered if his participation in the 2026 World Baseball Classic may have affected the season. Skenes spoke on that over the weekend and confirmed what many thought to be true.

Paul Skenes believes WBC participation affected him

Skenes spoke to Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend and discussed his season struggles and decline in fastball velocity. While he didn't place all the blame on his participation in the World Baseball Classic, Skenes does believe that the WBC played a role in his struggles this season.

“There are a lot of other factors, so I don’t want to put everything on that,” Skenes told the Gazette. “But I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit.”

As for the decline in fastball velocity, the unusual timeline to ramp up for the season is something that Skenes believed threw him off his game.

“Usually, that time of year, you’re kind of ramping up and it’s a little bit slow. You can kind of get onto the slope and find your body,” he said. “One live [batting practice], you’re topping at 97 [mph], and then the next you’re 98, 99. And that wasn’t the case this year. Looking back, I don’t think that really helped.”

Paul Skenes' struggles began on Opening Day

While some of it was a bit out of his control, Skenes' season got off to a rough start on Opening Day. He failed to make it out of the first inning for the first time in his career, something that set the stage and was an early preview of what his season would look like.