The Pittsburgh Pirates have Paul Skenes, but the Milwaukee Brewers appear to have found their own version of Skenes in Jacob Misiorowski.
The 23-year-old rookie has taken the baseball world by storm since debuting in June, immediately emerging as one of the sport’s best pitchers. He’s 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA, a 0.90 WHIP and an 11.6 K/9 over his first five starts, one of which saw him outduel Skenes in one of the biggest pitching matchups of the season.
Misiorowski just made his first All-Star team, too, breaking Skenes’ record for fewest games played before a player’s first All-Star appearance. Fittingly, they both pitched a scoreless inning in the National League’s 7-6 victory over the American League on Tuesday.
Not surprisingly, the Brewers are trying to lock their young ace down. According to recent reports from Francys Romero and Sean Wright, they’ve already approached him about a potential contract extension.
While a deal doesn’t appear imminent, it would be bad news for the Pirates for several reasons.
One is that it would keep Misiorowski with one of Pittsburgh’s division rivals for the foreseeable future, guaranteeing that the Pirates will face him frequently for years to come. That’s not ideal for their hitters, obviously, plus it would make Milwaukee tougher to beat in the standings.
Another is that it would set the market for a Skenes extension, should Pittsburgh pursue one. A Skenes extension would already be enormously expensive based on the historic start to his career, but a Misiorowski deal could push the two-time All-Star’s asking price even higher.
Story continues below advertisement
Either way, this is definitely a situation for the Pirates to monitor. If they’re thinking about locking up their star hurler, they may want to do it sooner rather than later.
More Pirates: Pirates Ace Paul Skenes On His Scoreless All-Star Outing
Featured image via Brett Davis/Imagn Images