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Pirates Second Biggest Offseason Question Focuses On Paul Skenes
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- Pirates Second Biggest Offseason Question Focuses On Paul Skenes
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
One could argue that the Pittsburgh Pirates ' spending this offseason is the most important question to answer.
It's tough to disagree, though there are other factors to consider, ones people don't seem to be talking about much.
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One disappointing aspect of last season was the Pirates' young pitching staff not throwing the ball as well as some had hoped. At the top of that list was right-hander Paul Skenes, who was coming off two of the better seasons that we've seen in Major League Baseball history.
I don't want to say Skenes was bad last year by any means; he posted a 3.82 ERA and still struck out 200 hitters in 174.1 innings, but for a guy of his caliber, it was a very average year.
A few years from now, we'll likely look back on this season and say it was the worst of his career. Skenes is that good, so expecting him to return to the likes of a sub-3.00 ERA with elite strikeout stuff shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
But that's also something the Pirates have to hope for this offseason. There's no guarantee that just because Skenes has been one of the better pitchers in Major League Baseball history through the first two seasons of his career, he'll be that again. His stuff may just not be as good as it once was, as his fastball velocity has been down compared with prior years.
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That's why one Pirates writer recently suggested that Skenes returning to form is perhaps the biggest question that the Pirates have to answer this offseason.
"Skenes had a solid showing in 2026 by any other standard, posting a 3.82 ERA and a 1.119 WHIP in his 174.1 innings, striking out 200 batters with 49 walks. The problem is that Skenes had set an exceedingly high bar over his first two seasons, posting a 1.96 ERA and a 0.948 WHIP in his 320.2 innings between 2024 and 2025, striking out 386 batters with 74 walks.
"It is possible that the Pirates' playoff drought would have ended had Skenes replicated his previous form. The Pirates will need him to return to his typical standard if they are going to return to the postseason in 2027," David Hill wrote .
As Hill noted, a postseason bid in 2027 will come down to what happens this offseason and how Skenes looks.
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Obviously, other factors matter, including how the bullpen performs after a below-average year, but the reality is that if Skenes had thrown at a high level last year, Pittsburgh likely would have been in a position to make the postseason.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and Pitt has to live with that.
