Pirates by Position: Paul Skenes brings star power to a deep, young starting rotation

After setting a Pittsburgh Pirates rookie record for strikeouts and posting the lowest ERA by a rookie since the Dead Ball Era, Paul Skenes is taking a three-step approach to spring training.

“Volume. Facing hitters again. Punching dudes out,” Skenes said last month at PiratesFest.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and a team-best 170 strikeouts against 32 walks in 133 innings over 23 starts. It was everything expected of the 2023 No. 1 overall pick and more, as Skenes started for the National League in the All-Star Game, won NL Rookie of the Year honors and finished third in Cy Young voting.

“He’s sort of meeting and exceeding expectations, which were already pretty high, but the cool thing about him is that he’s getting after it right now to get better,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington told MLB Network in December, noting that Skenes’ offseason focus was on pitch design. “We think there’s another level. Certainly, he thinks there’s another level. We’re excited about him and the rest of our staff and what they’re capable of doing for us next year.”

What will Skenes do for an encore?

After spending his rookie season on closely monitored pitch and innings counts, Skenes is ready for the Pirates to loosen the reins. He should anchor a starting rotation that returns right-handers in 2023 All-Star Mitch Keller and Jared Jones and lefty Bailey Falter, with a potential competition for the fifth spot. Those four combined for 49 of the Pirates’ 67 quality starts, with Skenes and Keller making 15 each.

Where the Pirates opened last season with Skenes at Triple-A Indianapolis and Keller as the Opening Day starter, they parted ways with lefties Marco Gonzales and Martin Perez and traded righty Luis Ortiz, along with a pair of pitching prospects, to the Cleveland Guardians for first baseman Spencer Horwitz.

Yet there’s a belief the Pirates could have one of the deepest young starting rotations in baseball, with righties Mike Burrows and Johan Oviedo returning from Tommy John surgery and top-100 prospects Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington waiting in the wings.

The oldest is Keller, who turns 29 in April.

“It’s the strength of the team. We’ve got more coming, we believe, too,” Cherington said. “We’ve got to continue to push that group. We believe they can all be better. They know that.”

That starts with Skenes, who touched triple digits on the radar gun with ease and averaged 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings. He struck out seven or more 16 times, striking out nine five times and 11 twice. What Skenes wants is to become more efficient so that he can go deeper into games, given he went seven innings or longer only four times.

“There are a couple things that I’ve been focusing on this offseason, basically just throwing more strikes, attacking the zone, getting hitters out faster and then just keep learning,” Skenes said. “Learning outing by outing. We’ve learned some stuff from last year that we’ll transfer over kind of as an overarching thing into the next season. Just continue to just learn the game, learn from outing to outing and just go from there.”

Where the Pirates really need improvement is in sustaining success. Keller was 10-5 with a 3.46 ERA at the All-Star break, then went 1-7 with a 5.65 ERA the rest of the way. Falter’s ERA jumped by nearly a point in the second half. After making the Opening Day roster and a sizzling 10-strikeout debut at Miami, Jones missed six weeks with a lat strain then posted a 5.87 ERA in his final six starts.

“You know what’s out there,” Jones said. “You’ve been through the gauntlet. I feel like that’s the best way I can put it. I’ve had a whole year up there to see the ups and the downs. Just trying to make sure the downs aren’t as bad.”

Oviedo was a workhorse in 2023, tossing 177 2/3 innings over 32 starts. And Burrows, a former top-10 Pirates prospect, earned his first major-league victory in his debut, piggybacking Skenes to pitch 3 1/3 innings at the New York Yankees late last September.

The Pirates are as excited about Chandler, a 2021 third-round pick who bypassed a football scholarship to Clemson to sign for a $3 million bonus, as they were about Jones last spring.

Chandler went 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 12.4 K/9 rate in seven starts at Indianapolis last year, and he could make a case this spring to earn the final spot in the rotation — much the same way Jones did.

“I don’t want to say I want to follow in his footsteps,” Chandler said, “but that would be awesome.”

For the Pirates, it starts with Skenes. If he can continue his rookie success — or even take it to another level — they will have a chance to compete. The Pirates were 15-8 in games he started, with four one-run losses and one loss by two runs. Skenes has vowed to take on a greater leadership role this season, both on and off the mound.

“It’s not hyperbole,” Cherington said. “Inside the clubhouse, being around him, it’s pretty much what you all see: It’s super high-level talent, combined with his work ethic, aptitude, care, doing it the right way. We’re lucky he’s on our side.”