Pirates don’t plan to shut Paul Skenes down even as rookie phenom approaches career-high innings, per report

The Pittsburgh Pirates are not planning to shut down rookie Paul Skenes‘ and do not have him on a set innings limit for 2024, Ken Rosenthal, Stephen J. Nesbitt, and Zack Meisel of The Athletic report. Any attempt to lessen his workload would reportedly come in shortening some starts, rather than skipping them entirely, allowing him to finish out what has thus far looked like a Rookie of the Year season.

This reported decision comes despite the fact that the Pirates going into Monday’s slate are seven games below .500, in last place in the National League Central, and 7 1/2 games out of the third and final NL wild-card spot. As well, the 22-year-old Skenes is in his first full season as a professional. 

Presently, Skenes this season has worked 125 1/3 innings, 98 of which have come at the big-league level. Last season, he threw 129 1/3 frames, almost all of which came as the ace of the national-champion LSU Tigers. As our Mike Axisa recently wrote, the Pirates have handled Skenes very prudently since drafting him as the top overall pick last year and signing him: 

Truth be told, the Pirates did an excellent job preparing the 22-year-old Skenes to pitch deep into the season, as frustrating as it was. They handled him very, very carefully in Triple-A in April and May. Skenes did not throw 50 pitches until his third start or 70 pitches until his fifth start. He did not throw 80 pitches in a game this season until his MLB debut on May 11, which was his eighth start of 2024.

As well, Skenes since arriving in Pittsburgh in early May has made every one of his 16 starts on extra rest. Across those 16 starts, he’s averaged a bit more than 6 innings per trip to the mound, and he’s clocked an average 98 pitches in each start. His high pitch count for the year is 107 against the New York Mets on July 5.

The club is no doubt operating under the hopes that Skenes, listed at a sturdy 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds and blessed with frontline stuff, can develop into an ace and a workhorse. Over those 16 starts for Pittsburgh, he’s pitched to a 2.30 ERA and 2.91 FIP with 121 strikeouts in 98 innings. He also started the All-Star Game for the NL. The present and future are exceptionally bright for Skenes, and he’s no doubt a box-office draw even for the flagging Pirates. Given all those considerations, the Pirates are poised to let Skenes continue working this season and thus continue what looks like a trajectory toward sustained greatness.