Will Pirates Limit Paul Skenes’ Innings Workload Down Stretch?

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t treated Paul Skenes with kid gloves during his first full season in the majors, but they might be beginning to ease up on their ace.

Skenes has worked 111 innings this season, ranking fourth on a leaderboard led by Garrett Crochet (115 1/3). Yet he hasn’t recently gone as deep into games.

The 23-year-old pitched at least six innings in 12 of his first 14 starts, but he’s finished the sixth frame once in his last four turns. Skenes has amassed 20 innings during that stretch, including five scoreless in 88 pitches during Tuesday’s 1-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Are the Pirates exuding more caution with their superstar starting pitcher?

It would certainly be a reasonable approach, and Pittsburgh remains last in the National League Central despite a six-game winning streak. Skenes would flirt with 200 innings at his current pace, and only four pitchers reached that elusive mark in 2024.

On June 25, Skenes allowed four runs over a season-low four innings. Pirates manager Don Kelly said, per the Tribune-Review’s Justin Guerriero, he was “just trying to monitor” the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, who exited after throwing 78 pitches.

“We’re always watching, not just Paul, but all the guys,” Kelly said last week. “But especially Paul, he’s up over 100 (innings pitched) now. Just really want to be mindful of where he’s at. There’s going to be days where he can run for a long time, and there’s other times that we’ve got to just take care of him, too, as far as him being our workhorse and understanding where he’s at.”

Not all innings are created equally. Skenes has cruised through most of his starts, only needing 99 pitches to navigate eight innings against the Houston Astros on June 3. His pitch count has peaked at 108 this season, but the All-Star hasn’t worked as economically over his last few outings.

Skenes discussed that process after Tuesday’s start, per MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf.

“That’s the beauty about this game,” Skenes said. “We have the opportunity to constantly evolve, play the cat-and-mouse game, and I think we’re learning how to do that very well. I think there’s still room to go, but obviously, throwing [more] innings is a product of being efficient. I want to say that I got to this many innings quicker than I did last year. Off the top of my head, I don’t know, but it feels like that. Just got to keep going and keep learning.”

Skenes probably won’t go seven every time, but it doesn’t look like the Pirates have a hard innings cap in mind either.

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