Is That Fair? Pirates’ Paul Skenes Experimenting With New Pitch

Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes is a baseball savant.

Skenes, for those of you who don’t know, started his baseball journey as a collegiate backstop at Air Force in 2021. Pittsburgh has since seen him take up pitching, become the best arm in college baseball, transfer to LSU, win a national championship, become the club’s No. 1 overall pick and win National League Rookie of the Year.

What’s next?

Skenes is looking to become even more dominant, adding a new pitch to his mix.

“The cutter in itself, he’s had his slider and he tried to throw it two different ways,” Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin said on Saturday, per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He has a sweeper, he has a slider, it was just a pitch to be able to consistently get one shape with and be able to be a strikable pitch to be more efficient. With the sinker, it’s just something that he wanted to play with and kind of see where it goes from that.”

Is that even allowed?

Skenes is expected to continue his dominance in 2025, and adding a sixth pitch to his mix would almost certainly do that as he looks to continue staying ahead of hitters. The Pirates will lean on him to lead a young rotation into the regular season, and it sounds as though that’s a responsibility he’s ready to take.

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