Who will be a pitcher to watch out for this year? Shohei Ohtani might be the most obvious answer. The player with a career 38-19 record, 3.01 ERA, and a 142 ERA+ will surely be the first choice. Well, after Shohei Ohtani, the next one would be Paul Skenes! Surprising, considering how the MLB roster this year is undoubtedly enriched with some talented pitchers. Bryce Miller, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and others were there, but only Skenes got the opportunity to be mentioned alongside Ohtani. So what makes Skenes so hyped entering the new season?
Skenes took the MLB by storm when he struck out seven batters while throwing 17 fastballs at 100 mph (160 km/h) or more in his MLB debut match. As ridiculous as it sounds, Skenes did throw fastballs at 100 mph. In addition, Skenes finished his debut season with an 11-3 record in 23 starts, a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 170 strikeouts, and 32 walks. Apart from these numbers, he is also ahead of others because of his exceptional combination of high-velocity fastballs and a unique “splinker” pitch.
Now that Paul Skenes has started getting placed alongside Ohtani, he accepted it with grace. In a new episode of Baseball Is Dead on Spotify, he was asked about the same. “I am so honored to be in that conversation,” responded Skenes. Yes, it’s an honor for a rookie to be compared with a future Hall of Famer. It also defines how everyone is expecting an Ohtani-like performance from Skenes this year. 2025 is going to be his first full year in the major league, and a lot is riding on him this time. Will he be able to make it bigger this year?
Skenes is all set for a breakout 2025 season
Paul Skenes ended 2024 with a good figure and is getting hyped. But how much is he ready to excel in the new season? His spring games performance is teasing a more dominant stance this year. In the Saturday game against the Orioles, Skenes went on to strike out 4 batters in 3 innings and give up only 1 run. If that was not enough, he came up with a new pitch—a cutter. A new weapon in his stable full of Fourseam fastball, sinker (94mph), curve, and change. With the new pitch, the ball breaks late and travels horizontally, typically 3 to 5 mph slower than his fastball, making it difficult to barrel up.
“We identified the possibility for this season to add a couple of weapons,” said Skenes on his readiness for the new season. It seems like Skenes is working with the Pirates to offer a few more variations. What makes things worse is that he is planning to pitch more this year. The rival batters are not going to only face varied pitches from Paul Skenes but more frequent pitches from him. “I’m going to be ready to throw 240 innings,” Skenes said per ESPN via the Associated Press.
Thus, he now has a new pitch up his sleeve and a chance of throwing more pitches. The probability of him getting more SOs this year is, henceforth, higher than last year. Getting compared to Shohei Ohtani is a big thing, and Skenes now has a job to prove the same on the field; the next few months will clear the air about how his performance unfolds.
What are your thoughts about Skenes getting alongside Ohtani? Let us hear from you below.
The post Paul Skenes Soaks in Surreal Praise as He Opens Up on Being Mentioned Alongside Shohei Ohtani appeared first on EssentiallySports.
