Pirates' Paul Skenes, Orioles' Jackson Holliday in spotlight as top prospects in Spring Breakout

When Jackson Holliday faced Paul Skenes for the first time late last month in a Grapefruit League game, the meeting of the past two No. 1 overall picks was viewed as a prelude to the Spring Breakout.

There were no television cameras or broadcasters there to hype up the matchup between baseball’s top position and pitching prospects, just the 4,952 fans in attendance at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla.

Thomas Harrington watched Skenes’ spring training debut from the bullpen, where Harrington later warmed up to pitch in relief for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Baltimore Orioles.

“I wasn’t going to miss it,” said Harrington, a right-hander who is a top-10 Pirates pitching prospect. “It was electric.”

Holliday and Skenes are expected to square off again in the Spring Breakout, the marquee event in the series of MLB-sponsored games featuring top prospects, when the Orioles visit the Pirates at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

This one will feature six players ranked in MLB Pipeline’s top-100 prospects and play out before a national television audience on MLB Network, ESPN+ and SportsNet Pittsburgh+.

“It’s cool,” Skenes said. “The Orioles have a really good lineup. I’m excited to see how our farm system stacks up against them.”

Where the 6-foot-6 right-hander got Holliday to ground out to second base in their first meeting Feb. 29, Skenes knows it will be a challenge to repeat his success against the young Orioles star.

“It’s a tough at-bat for a pitcher,” Skenes said Monday on a video conference call. “Game planning against Jackson was hard the last time around. Not a lot of ways to get him out.”

The 20-year-old son of seven-time All-Star and 2007 NL batting champ Matt Holliday, Jackson Holliday, a shortstop/second baseman, is batting .323/.344/.613 with two doubles, two triples, a home run and five RBIs with 12 strikeouts and one walk in 10 games this spring.

Holliday said it was “exciting” to face Skenes, whom he called “extremely talented.” Where their matchup was something of a spectacle, what made it more of a rarity is that the Pirates had 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis behind the plate and the Orioles followed Holliday with 2019 No. 1 overall pick Adley Rutschman and 2020 No. 2 overall pick Heston Kjerstad.

“Anytime you get to face somebody, it gives you a better idea of the second time you get to face them,” Holliday said. “I’m excited about that. It was awesome. It was a really cool experience to have so many No. 1 picks on a field. I don’t think that happens too often. It’s a really talented group down here in Sarasota and Bradenton area. It was a lot of fun.”

After leading LSU to the College World Series championship, Skenes signed with the Pirates for a $9.2 million bonus and pitched in five games across three levels of the minors. He has allowed one run — a solo homer by Amed Rosario — on three hits with three strikeouts in three innings over two appearances this spring.

Where Holliday is competing for a spot on Baltimore’s Opening Day roster, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington already informed Skenes that he will start the season in the minors. After a season as LSU’s Friday night starter, Skenes is adjusting to pitching every fifth day, learning how to use his five-pitch repertoire and figuring out game plans on how to read hitters and where to attack them.

Skenes relied primarily on a four-seam fastball that touches triple digits on the radar gun and a nasty slider but is working on fine-tuning a “splinker” that’s a cross between a split-fingered fastball and a sinker.

“That’s basically the pitch that I couldn’t throw in college just because sinkers are generally a right-on-right pitch,” Skenes said. “The way that right-handed hitters were attacking me last year, it just didn’t make sense to throw it. The nice thing about facing better hitters is you have to be finer, which makes it fun. Your better pitches get better, I think, and your worse pitches get worse. If you make a mistake, you’re going to get hammered. If you make a good pitch, you’re generally going to get rewarded for it more often. That’s kind of been the focus.”

Skenes has become accustomed to the commotion that surrounds his outings this spring. It’s nothing new, given his performance at the CWS in Omaha and the packed crowd of 10,164 he drew in his debut at Double-A Altoona’s Peoples Natural Gas Field on Aug. 26

“One of the most packed games I’ve ever been part of in my life,” said Anthony Solometo, a Pirates left-handed pitcher who is a top-100 prospect. “Paul’s the man. He’s got all this hype around him, so he knows what he’s got to do.”