The Pirates are in no rush to get Paul Skenes to the big leagues, but the Pittsburgh prospect is making a case to be there sooner rather than later.
Skenes pitched 3 ⅓ scoreless innings Thursday night for Triple-A Indianapolis in an outing where he reached at least 100 mph on 34 of the 43 four-seam fastballs he threw and struck out eight strikeouts, according to MLB.com.
Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft and MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 prospect, averaged 100.5 mph on his fastball Thursday.
He finished the day with 65 pitches to his name, and in 12 2/3 innings this season in Triple-A, Skenes has 27 strikeouts.
He still hasn’t dropped a single run.
Yet Skenes, who is also known for being the boyfriend of LSU gymnastics superstar Olivia Dunne, is not being rushed in his development.
He hasn’t pitched four innings in a start this season, and the Pirates are being strategic in taking their time with their progress.
“With Paul, we’ve been very intentional about how we build his volume before the season with the goal of really accomplishing two things,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said recently in an interview with 93.7 The Fan, according to MLB. .com. “One is trying to get him to an appropriate total volume for 2024 from last year, when he threw a full college season and then just a little bit of pro ball.
Olivia Dunne. Instagram
“We don’t want to go from zero to 100 right away. Paul is so important to us in the long term, so we want to really think about it.
Even if the Pirates don’t try to push Skenes, if he continues the way he’s been playing so far, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him in the majors soon enough.
New York Post
