Paul Skenes didn’t expect the 2026 season would turn out the way it has.
In his second season in 2025, Skenes won the National League Cy Young Award. To that point in his career, he had a 21-13 record in 55 starts and a 1.96 ERA.
He is scheduled to make his final start of the season on Thursday at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. It will end a disappointing campaign that includes a 10-11 record, a 3.91 ERA and a marked decline in his velocity.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the 24-year-old Skenes said his participation in the World Baseball Classic in March partially is to blame.
“There are a lot of other factors, so I don’t want to put everything on (the WBC),” Skenes told the Post-Gazette for a report published Monday. “But I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit.”
Skenes said he expects to return to form in 2027 and that he is not sorry he represented the United States in the WBC.
“It definitely affected the year,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the only one. … Yeah, I don’t know. (The WBC) definitely didn’t make things easier.”
Skenes’ average fastball registered 98.8 mph as a rookie in 2024, 98.1 mph last season and 96.8 mph in 2026. The average dwindled further in his most recent start on Friday — a no-decision in an 8-5 win against the Kansas City Royals — to 96.1 mph.
The Pirates selected the right-hander out of LSU with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. He made 12 starts in the minor leagues, totaling only 34 innings with 55 strikeouts before being promoted to the big leagues in 2024, winning NL Rookie of the Year.
Skenes said an adjustment to his mechanics this season has had an impact, but added the early March timing of the WBC got him out of his routine.
“Usually, that time of year, you’re kind of ramping up and it’s a little bit slow,” he told the newspaper. “You can kind of get onto the slope and find your body. One live (batting practice), you’re topping at 97, and then the next you’re 98, 99.
“And that wasn’t the case this year. … Looking back, I don’t think that really helped.”
His first start of the season perhaps foreshadowed what was to come. On Opening Day, in an 11-7 loss to the New York Mets, he gave up five runs on four hits and two walks with one strikeout in the first inning. He got only two outs and threw 37 pitches before manager Don Kelly went to the bullpen.
On the season, he has given up five earned runs on seven occasions this season.
