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Despite being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft and one of the most-coveted prospects in the game, Paul Skenes knew he had to grow as both a pitcher and a professional athlete. On Wednesday, speaking with media ahead of the Pirates' matchup against the Brewers, Skenes attributed the growth he underwent throughout his rookie season to his increased awareness of how he could improve in all aspects of his game.
"Awareness of myself and the league as a whole, how they were going to go about attacking me and how I attack hitters. That's the biggest difference," Skenes said. "It's not a 'stuff' thing or anything like that. It's just kind of awareness and I don't know that the execution has gotten better, it's just probably different. What I'm trying to do is a little bit different than what I was trying to do when I got drafted and showed up in spring training too. But I think just the awareness of everything that's going on with myself and everything that opposing hitters are trying to do too, I think that's just higher."
Since Skenes first arrived at PNC Park on May 11 and delivered a four-inning outing that included seven strikeouts, one home run and three earned runs, he has grown little by little. It's allowed him to earn an 11-3 record in 22 starts while recording a 1.99 ERA, 167 strikeouts and limiting opposing hitters to a slash line of .200/.260/.299.
But as Skenes would allude to, he improved in multiple facets of his game. From his day-to-day approach to his pitch repertoire to changing the way he approached certain lineups and certain hitters. He just continued to grow each start and his first two outings were a perfect example.
After giving up three earned runs and a home run to the Cubs in his first outing, Skenes faced the Cubs again five days later and threw a six-inning no-hitter in Chicago while striking out 11 and only walking one. Shelton said how Skenes adjusted throughout the season was where he saw his prized rookie grow the most.
"How he handles situations, how he's able to make adjustments. I mean, he faced two teams in our division four times. That's challenging for any pitcher to do, much less a rookie," Shelton said. "The ability to be able to change his repertoire, execute pitches, I think we saw in Cincinnati the other day, going to the changeup, I think that's the thing that probably stands out the most, which is very rare for a young player."
Skenes' pitching repertoire has consistently grown throughout the season as well. Early on, Skenes leaned heavily on his fastball and splinker but started to expand the use of all of his pitches. In the game Shelton spoke about, Skenes leaned on his splinker and fastball, throwing them 27 and 22 times, respectively, but also used his changeup eight times and his sweeper 11 times.
Skenes only threw 73 pitches in that outing against the Reds, but if you look at his outing from Sept. 9 against the Marlins when he threw 98 pitches, he used every piece of his repertoire. He threw 35 fastballs, 24 sinkers, 14 sliders, 14 changeups, seven curveballs and four sweepers.
“It’s been fun. It’s not like we’re just punching X and O and triangle or whatever it is in The Show," Skenes said. "It’s like, ‘Well, I have it so I might as well throw it.’ We’ve gotten to that point a little bit where I can get guys out with two pitches, three pitches, whatever it is. But being able to get guys out with all five has been really fun. With the awareness thing, just learning about my stuff and how it plays and the right time to throw all those pitches, it’s been really fun to learn that as the season’s gone on.”
Yasmani Grandal has been a big piece of Skenes' growth because of the way he calls Skenes' outings. Skenes said "Nobody sees the game the way he does" which has allowed him to increase his awareness and learn how to attack hitters.
"Just being able to learn from him has been really good," Skenes said. "Just learning about hitters across the league and how he calls my game, my stuff because he sees things in my stuff that I don't see and like I said with the awareness thing, he's just increased my awareness."
Skenes said he's ready to continue his growth in the offseason, which will consist of a lot of "higher highs and lower lows." He understands that there's time to work and there's time to relax and says he has an understanding of how to balance that aspect of the offseason.
"When I’m relaxing I’m going to relax more and when I’m working, I’m going to work harder," Skenes said. "That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. That set me up really well in spring training and it set me up well to this point in the season, so I’m just going to keep going with that."
The possible National League Rookie of the Year still has one start left in his season and it comes with an interesting opportunity as he'll get to face off against Juan Soto and Aaron Judge once again. The last time Skenes faced the pair he was starting in the MLB All-Star game in Texas. Skenes walked Soto before getting Judge to ground out to third base to end the first inning.
With a sly smile, Skenes said he hasn't thought about getting another opportunity to face Judge and Soto. The pair currently hold the highest and third-highest OPS in the major leagues and while Skenes said these types of matchups are cool, they happen across the league consistently.
"We saw it the last week with (Elly) De La Cruz and you see it with (Paul) Goldschmidt and you see it with (Nolan) Arenado and (Masin) Winn and all those guys in that lineup and there are dudes in every lineup and those are obviously kind of the peak of it I think this year. Just got to execute."
However, executing against two of the best hitters in the game today would be a nice way to end a historic rookie season.
