Pirates' Paul Skenes Growing Into Leadership Role
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It didn't take long for Paul Skenes to assert himself as one of the Pittsburgh Pirates' leaders with his performance on the field.
Now, he's looking to take the next step as a leader off of the field. While he noted he doesn't know how he'll go about being one of the top figures in the clubhouse, he knows with his experience that he's better positioned to step up for Pittsburgh in 2025.
"I think so," Skenes said. "I don't know what the character that'll be, but [I'll have] probably a little bit more say so. Obviously, having established myself a little bit, there's a long way to go still. So, I'm not going to overstep, but winning is winning. We've got to do what we've got to do to make it happen."
Skenes put together one of the greatest rookie seasons in MLB history en route to winning the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and finishing third for the NL Cy Young Award. He went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts and set a Pirates franchise record for a rookie with 170 strikeouts over 133 innings pitched. He was also the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA below 2.20, over 150 strikeouts in their first 21 games and the second pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through their first 22 appearances.
Skenes also noted that Pittsburgh's clubhouse was in a good place last season. With his first season under his belt, he has a much better feel for how things should operate in an MLB clubhouse.
"I think in the short time that we've been here," Skenes said. "I think we have buy-in there are a lot of guys and guys that, frankly, I wouldn't have expected it from [who] are talking about changing some things within the clubhouse and that kind of thing, because we had a good clubhouse last year, but it wasn't anything crazy."
Skenes added: "I learned a lot about how a pro locker room is last year. I've also learned since the experience of last year and then talking to guys this offseason who have won [the] World Series, and played for 15 years in the show, that kind of thing. [I] learned about how a locker room should be, too. So we're going to work on getting it there and we've started already."
