Pirates Star Rookie Paul Skenes In ‘Dead Heat’ For Impressive Accolade

The Pittsburgh Pirates should be extremely excited about their young ace.

Pittsburgh called up 22-year-old flamethrower Paul Skenes this season after he was selected as the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft. Skenes impressed in the minors and essentially forced his way to the big leagues with his stellar play.

The young flamethrower has continued to shine since getting called up and has a 2.13 ERA in 19 starts for the Pirates. Over that stretch, he also has logged and eye-popping 142-to-30 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He earned high praise already this season and made the National League All-Star team and even earned the start.

Now, more hardware could be on the way. With the regular season coming to an end soon, there will be some awards up for grabs. Skenes could end up winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award. He has some competition, though, and CBS Sports’ Matt Snyder said he is in a “dead heat” with San Diego Padres rookie Jackson Merrill.

“I did a bigger breakdown of this on Thursday, so take a look at that,” Snyder said. “If you only want the names, Paul Skenes and Jackson Merrill might be in a dead heat — though sportsbooks currently have Merrill as a rather heavy favorite — while Jackson Chourio, Shota Imanaga, and Masyn Winn deserve a word.”

Skenes should be the winner, but he will have competition. If he can continue to shine down the stretch, it should be a no-brainer to hand the young ace the award when the regular season comes to an end.

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