Pirates’ Skenes Well Prepared for 2025 MLB Season

Halfway through Pittsburgh Pirates’ spring training, all signs point to a successful 2025 MLB season for pitching ace Paul Skenes.

This past Saturday in Sarasota, at Ed Smith Stadium, Skenes pitched for Pittsburgh in his first game during the 2025 Grapefruit League season. His three innings of work, as expected, were impressive. The Pirates’ starter allowed four hits and one run while collecting four strikeouts. Pittsburgh came away with a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Preparation is key when traveling the road of expectation. Make no mistake about it: expectations are extremely high when it comes to Skenes. The most exciting pitching performer in all of baseball last season, you could argue with plenty of statistics to back up your claim of Skenes being the best hurler among all 30 MLB clubs.

During the 2023 season, Skene's success with his splinker pitch (a combination of a splitter and sinker) took him all the way to being named the National League Rookie of the Year. For the Pirates to contend in the National League Central in 2024, Skenes will be counted on to duplicate his rookie performance, if not take his game a step higher.

As a marquee player of the game, you wouldn’t know it of Skenes when away from the fans and cameras at the ballpark. He fits in well with all his teammates. He appears to welcome being just one of many in the Pirates’ clubhouse.

When discussing his game, at Pirate City and LECOM Park, there’s no dodging questions, no prima donna attitude. At 22-years-old, Skenes comes across far more mature and confident than his age or MLB experience. Last season, in the 23 starts he made, Skenes ran a record of 11-3, with a 1.96 ERA, and registered 170 strikeouts in 133 innings worked.

With another season coming up to be added to the back of his baseball card, Skenes isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Last August is when I started thinking about how I would be preparing in the off-season, for now. I wanted to develop a good plan, so I would be ready for Day 1 of spring training,” Skenes said during his first press conference in Bradenton.

For the Pirates to improve on finishing the past two seasons at 76-86, a healthy Skenes is a necessity. So far, all indicators are telling that MLB’s overall top draft selection by Pittsburgh in 2023 is well versed to repeat his rookie season’s winnings.

The big right-hander says his body feels really good and that he’s ready for a large workload this coming season. Skenes hopes to be more efficient with his pitches, compared to his last season’s performances, in hopes of getting batters out early in the count.

“Winning the 0-1 and 1-1 counts, that’s important for me. This past off-season, I concentrated on sharpening my pitches, says Skenes, who very well could be Pirates’ skipper Derek Shelton’s Opening Day starter later this month in Miami when the regular season gets underway on March 27th.

Skenes also touched on with reporters that he is excited to see the familiar faces in the clubhouse from last season’s squad. One of those faces is catcher Joey Bart, who is expected to be behind the plate for most Pirates’ games in 2025.

The comfort and confidence between pitcher and catcher are vital for both to be on the same page during a game. Skenes tells of having “a lot of good conversations” about last season, and what they hope will take place this coming season. Even with building relationships with all catchers on the Pirates’ roster, Skenes is a realist. At the end of the day, he understands that he must pitch well.

Pittsburgh’s general manager, Ben Cherington, has assembled a formidable support staff for Skenes. Just recently signing 12-year MLB veteran starter Andrew Haney, who was part of the 2023 World Series Champion Texas Rangers to a one-year $5.25 contract, should provide the Pirates with another stable arm alongside Skenes. Haney made 31 starts last season for the Rangers.

Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, and Bailey Falter, all members of the Pirates’ 2024 rotation, give Pittsburgh fans much hope for 2025. Then, the possibilities that could come about from other starters Johan Oviedo, Thomas Harrington, Bubba Chandler, and Braxton Ashcraft, the 2025 MLB season for the Pirates and their following could be “special.”

Qualifying for postseason play, something the Pirates haven’t done since 2015, is very achievable. Skenes and fellow Pirates’ pitchers will have to remain healthy, and the bats of Andrew McCutchen, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Bryan Reynolds will need to lead the way to wins, but it can happen.

There is no indication that Skenes can’t duplicate his 2024 season. Capturing the National League Cy Young Award, too, is very much in the mix. In such a short time, Skenes has catapulted to a pitching level far and above the competition.

It seems as only yesterday that Skenes made his professional debut on August 10, 2023, in Bradenton, while facing three batters for the rookie-level Florida Coast League Pirates. A total of 11 pitches were thrown that game at Pirate City. Five days later, on August 15, at LECOM Park, pitching for the Bradenton Marauders against the Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Class-A Florida State League, Skenes tossed 16 pitches.

The rest is history in the making for the big right-hander. History continues at Miami’s LoanDepot Park in three weeks.