Two months and one day into his major league career, Pirates ace Paul Skenes has been named the starting pitcher for the National League All-Star team. NL All-Star manager Torey Lovullo of the Diamondbacks called into the Dan Patrick Show this morning during an interview with Skenes this morning and informed the 22-year-old of the decision live on the air (video link). Major League Baseball announced the decision shortly thereafter. Skenes becomes the first rookie since Hideo Nomo in 1995 to be tabbed as his league’s starting pitcher for the Midsummer Classic. Coincidentally, that year’s All-Star Game also took place in Arlington — as will be the case with next week’s event.
Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, has emphatically announced himself as one of the game’s elite pitchers in short order. The term “meteoric rise” is thrown around perhaps too casually, but it’s appropriate — if not an understatement — when characterizing Skenes’ ascension to his current status. The 6’6″, 235-pound flamethrower was tagged for three runs in four innings in his MLB debut … and has since yielded all of 11 runs over a span of 10 starts and 62 1/3 innings pitched.
Since making his big league debut on May 11, Skenes leads all qualified NL pitchers with a 1.90 ERA and trails only White Sox ace Garrett Crochet (1.84) for the MLB lead in that regard. Skenes’ mammoth 34.9% strikeout rate also tops all NL pitchers in that span and also trails only Crochet (35.2%) for the big league lead.
Opponents have turned in a pitiful .202/.251/.319 batting line against the former LSU ace in 255 trips to the plate thus far in his big league career. Since making his debut, Skenes is 22nd in the majors in innings pitched, first in strikeouts, has the 10th-fewest walks, and has posted an unbeaten 6-0 record. Remarkably, he’s the only one of 77 qualified starting pitchers in baseball who has not taken a single loss since May 11.
Skenes was controversially pulled from yesterday’s outing in Milwaukee after firing seven no-hit innings and punching out 11 of the 23 hitters he faced along the way. The right-hander was at 99 pitches, and the Pirates opted to take a cautious approach with their burgeoning superstar rather than soar past his current career-high 107 pitches in pursuit of that potential personal milestone. Now, Skenes will make a different kind of history when he toes the rubber next week in the sport’s ultimate midseason showcase.
The dominant debuts of not only Skenes but teammate Jared Jones have transformed the Pirates’ rotation and long-term outlook. Pittsburgh controls both pitchers for more than a half-decade — Skenes through at least 2030 (pending Rookie of the Year voting), Jones through 2029 — adding a pair of high-octane arms to join Mitch Keller (3.40 ERA in 111 1/3 innings) atop the team’s rotation for the foreseeable future. Keller signed a five-year, $77MM contract spanning the 2024-28 seasons during spring training.
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