Paul Skenes allowed a run in his 2025 spring training debut but largely looked as dominant as he did while winning National League Rookie of the Year last season.
Skenes struck out four batters in three innings during the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles in Grapefruit League play on Saturday. He allowed one run on four hits, throwing 33 of his 54 pitches for strikes and consistently touching 99 mph on the radar gun.
More importantly, Skenes worked in two new pitches to his arsenal, adding a cutter and sinker to what he threw at Orioles hitters.
“When you’re working on new stuff, you’re trying to figure out how it will affect each other,” Skenes told reporters afterwards, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “So, I’m focused on getting it in the zone and seeing where we’re at.”
Skenes was scheduled to make his spring debut Monday versus the Philadelphia Phillies, but the game was rained out.
Pitching three innings was an indication that Skenes will likely have a larger pitch count and throw deeper into games than he did during his rookie season. He’ll also be given more opportunity to refine his new pitches. Last spring, the right-hander only pitched one inning in each of his starts.
“We’re in a little different spot than we were last year,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Last year, we were monitoring the volume, not only in spring training, but as we got into the season.
“This year, we know he’s a guy who is in our rotation, so I think you’ll see him work on the variety of pitches. You’ll probably see a fair bit of the cutter and, overall, just a nice opportunity to face a different uniform.”
Going into this season, Skenes said he wanted to pitch more efficiently. Throwing 23 pitches in the first inning likely isn’t what he had in mind, but he attributed that to working on his cutter and sinker.
“If you come out of the game with 23 pitches, that means you were throwing it in the zone and you were getting outs with it,” he added. “I wasn’t doing that super efficiently today. That’s kind of the one thing I’d say to that. That stuff will happen. Weak contact found holes and with some of those new pitches, it just kind of is what it is a little bit.”
Last season, Skenes finished with a 1.96 ERA, 170 strikeouts in 133 innings and an 11-3 record in 23 starts, establishing himself as an ace who will pitch at the top of the rotation. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft was called up by the Pirates in June after beginning the season with seven starts for Triple-A Indianapolis.
