Former Pirate Jason Bay calls Paul Skenes' rookie of the year season 'super-fun to follow'

Jason Bay was having a blast being back at PNC Park with his family, reliving his days with the Pittsburgh Pirates and being reminded about winning the 2004 National League rookie of the year award.

Bay held the distinction as the only Pirates player to earn that honor for two decades until Paul Skenes joined him last year after a historic season that saw the 22-year-old right-handed pitcher go 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings over 23 starts.

“Personally, it’s been great because it’s brought back a lot of memories for me,” said Bay, now 46. “That was 20 years ago. I had kind of forgotten about that stuff. With this coming up and the family rehashing a lot of stuff, it’s been very special for me to relive it. Paul, he’s going to have a great career. It’s been super-fun to follow.”

Bay had a chance to meet Skenes for the first time before Friday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians, and they posed for photographs together in front of the murals of themselves in the tunnel outside the home clubhouse and on the field after Skenes was presented with Baseball Digest’s rookie of the year award and the home plate from PNC Park last season as a commemorative gift. That’s where Bay realized the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Skenes towered over him.

“It was nice to meet him,” Bay said. “I didn’t realize how big he was. Good dude. The whole thing has been really cool. … It was just a quick meet-and-greet. He’s a very formal guy. I got him to loosen up a little bit when we were on the field and chat him up a bit of the cuff, in not so much a serious setting. I could tell that he’s definitely an intense guy.”

In 2004, Bay led all major-league rookies in home runs (26) and RBIs (82) and all NL rookies in slugging percentage (.550), extra-base hits (54) and total bases (226) despite offseason shoulder surgery that caused him to spend the first six weeks in extended spring training.

“I came up, and I could barely throw the ball to second base. They’re like, ‘We don’t care, we just want you to hit,’ ” the former outfielder said. “Kind of kept hitting. It was probably around the All-Star break, and I’d missed a good chunk of the season and people were talking about me.”

Bay, who was acquired from San Diego in the Brian Giles trade in August 2003, received 25 first-place votes (91%) and finished 38 points ahead of his former minor-league roommate, Padres shortstop Khalil Greene.

“So we had this little ha-ha rivalry going on,” Bay said. “About halfway through that year, it was like, ‘If I can stay healthy, I might be able to do this.’ ”

Bay followed Skenes from afar last season, when his triple-digit four-seam fastball and splitter-sinker hybrid were the talk of baseball and he became the first No. 1 overall pick in MLB history to start in the All-Star Game the year after he was drafted. That’s when Bay realized Skenes had a chance to join him as the next Pirate to win rookie of the year, saying the All-Star Game “was indicative that he had a good shot.”

“I just watched him on TV,” Bay said. “I’ve had 20 people since then be like, ‘Have you seen him pitch live yet?’ And I haven’t. Apparently, that’s an event everybody likes to show up for.”

Bay wanted to see Skenes pitch in person Saturday night against the Guardians but said his family had just returned from a vacation in Peru, and his three teenagers wanted to head home.

After meeting Skenes, would Bay want to face him?

“No,” Bay said, with a laugh. “The funny thing is, people ask me all the time, not just about him but the state of the game with velocities what they are. Velocities were never an issue for me.

“What people aren’t talking about is, the velocities are there for everybody. The breaking stuff is so much bigger and better now. When everyone throws 100 mph, you kind of get used to that. But now when you’ve got him throwing these slurvy things and 100-plus, you’re basically just guessing to a spot and hope you run into one. I think that’s the only way he’s going to get beat, if eventually a couple guys run into spots and (the Pirates) don’t score more than two.”