Skenes talks new pitching weapons, hope for the 2025 Pirates

It¡¯s hard to imagine that Paul Skenes could be much better than he was after taking the Majors by storm in 2024 and winning NL Rookie of the Year honors for the Pirates. That doesn¡¯t mean that the young ace hasn¡¯t been searching for ways to improve his game.

In an MLB Network interview on Sirius XM radio, Skenes touched on his offseason adjustments and what he strived to improve upon in his sophomore season.

¡°It¡¯s about being in zone, limiting damage and getting swing and miss,¡± Skenes said. ¡°That was the mindset behind the adjustments [for] this year. That¡¯s not going to stop until I retire, whenever that is.¡±

As a 22-year-old last season, Skenes dominated to the tune of an MLB-best 1.96 ERA (minimum 100 innings), while punching out 170 batters and accumulating 4.3 Wins Above Replacement (FanGraphs) in 133 innings.

By every imaginable indicator, Skenes -- the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 Draft -- was baseball¡¯s top inning-per-inning starter after he debuted on May 11. Still, Skenes identified that he¡¯d like to be more efficient and has even added a new pitch into the mix.

¡°We identified the possibility for this season to add a couple of weapons,¡± Skenes said. ¡°It probably won¡¯t be the same thing next year. We¡¯re striving to be as efficient as possible.¡±

Skenes also sees reasons to be optimistic about the Pirates, an organization trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

¡°I think the thing that fires me up most this year is we have a lot of buy-in,¡± Skenes said. ¡°Thirty clubs are probably showing up with hope to Spring Training. Hope doesn¡¯t win ballgames, but it¡¯s exciting now to see the kind of differences in the locker room from last year. I think we have a really good opportunity.¡±

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