BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Paul Skenes spent his rookie season dutifully following the Pittsburgh Pirates' plan to bring their young ace along as slowly and safely as possible.
It worked. Maybe better than all involved imagined during an electrifying 2024 in which the towering right-hander started the All-Star Game and captured the National League Rookie of the Year award while becoming perhaps the game's hottest young star in a decade.
It was an incredible ride to be sure. Yet when Skenes arrived this week for his second spring training, he did it with the kind of freedom he lacked a year ago.
Oh, and a couple of new pitches, too.
The 22-year-old is tinkering with adding a cutter and a running two-seam fastball to an arsenal that already includes a four-seamer that tops out north of 100 mph and a "splinker" that was one of the best put-away pitches in the majors in 2024.
"Just trying to create more swing decisions," Skenes said.
Or, nondecisions.
Veteran second baseman Adam Frazier, who reunited with the Pirates last month, volunteered to be the first batter to face Skenes during a live batting practice on Saturday. The first pitch the left-handed hitting Frazier saw was a splinker that darted down and away while catching the outside corner of the strike zone.
Frazier's bat never moved as the ball whizzed by, a pitch "nobody is going to do anything with," as the former All-Star put it.
"If you hit it, you're hitting it straight in the ground," Frazier added. "So it's like, 'All right, strap it on and get ready.'"
Frazier, second baseman Nick Gonzales and first baseman Darick Hall all failed to make solid contact off Skenes during a 25-pitch session in which a few dozen fans surrounded one of the practice fields at Pirates City, many of them with their phones raised to capture the first glimpse of Skenes in 2025.
Skenes called the attention he commands "a privilege." It's also, however, not a priority. The admitted perfectionist is too consumed with his craft to cultivate his celebrity. And for as dominant as he was at times last summer, Skenes knows he's hardly a finished product after 23 major league starts.
Yes, his numbers as a rookie — an 11-3 record with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings — were dazzling. They were also just the beginning.
Eyeing efficiency
While Skenes stressed he is not looking to get away from his identity as a strikeout pitcher, he is trying to find a way to get to strike three a little more quickly.
"Getting ahead, winning the 0-0, 0-1, 1-1 (pitches), winning those counts, that stuff is important," he said.
That's where adding a couple of more options to a repertoire that already includes six different pitches comes in.
"Anything that looks like a fastball and doesn't end up being a fastball (helps)," pitching coach Oscar Marin said. "I think we all know how special his fastballs are. (More options are) just something that is going to really open up the zone for him as well."
There is a sense of ease around Skenes that he didn't necessarily have when he arrived at spring training a year ago as a rookie just trying to make the team.
He didn't initially, not because he wasn't good enough, but because it was part of the team's plan to methodically build him up rather than rush him to the majors.
While Skenes admits that was "frustrating," he understands it was the right call.
"They did a really good job with me last year," he said. "I kind of knew, as much as I didn't want to believe it, that that was how it was going to be when I came into camp."
Not this time. Skenes is a lock to be on the roster when the Pirates break camp. The questions now are whether he'll be the opening day starter — something Skenes thinks would be "really cool" — and if Pittsburgh is ready to take a step forward into contention despite a relatively quiet offseason.
A different vibe
Skenes knows his performance at the top of the rotation is a vital part of that equation. He also knows it's hardly only up to him. It's one of the many reasons he plans to take on a more visible leadership role in 2025.
There were small signs under a near-cloudless mid-February sky. Wearing long sleeves underneath his black No. 30 jersey, his gray pants pulled up to the knees to expose Pittsburgh-centric socks, Skenes dapped up support staff, chatted with video coordinator Kevin Roach and made it a point to wait for veteran pitcher Mitch Keller to finish before the two slowly walked off the practice fields together.
The jitters he felt in 2024 are a rapidly fading memory. He has a little more experience to go with his ever-present swagger and the kind of stuff that few can match.
Skenes wasn't sure how fast he was throwing on Saturday, though he smiled while noting that it was probably faster than 94 mph because if it wasn't "some other people would have been concerned if it were."
There are no concerns about Skenes at the moment, just optimism at the possibilities. Marin knows the season Skenes put together as a rookie will be difficult to match but allowed "that's the expectation."
The team's expectation anyway. While he hasn't come out and said it, Skenes is likely aiming even higher.
"His expectation is probably a little bit different than mine," Marin said. "But that's what makes him great."
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