Are the Pirates about to pull a Paul Skenes with their other top pitching prospect?

Paul Skenes' National League Rookie of the Year Award-winning season in 2024 was one of the greatest rookie pitching campaigns of all time during his debut season – and it wasn't even a full season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates superstar didn't make his Major League debut until May 11, and there was no question that the 22-year-old belonged on a big league mound. He finished the season with an 11-3 record and a 1.96 ERA over his 23 starts, setting a Pirates rookie record with 170 strikeouts and becoming the first rookie pitcher to start in the All-Star Game since 1995. Oh, and he was also a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award.

It will likely be years – maybe even decades – before we see another pitcher put together the kind of historic rookie campaign that Skenes did. But could we see another Rookie of the Year emerge out of Pittsburgh as soon as next year?

MLB Pipeline's Jonathan Mayo thinks it's possible. In fact, he picked Pirates top prospect Bubba Chandler as his No. 2 candidate to win the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Award, trailing only Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews – Skenes' former teammate at LSU and the top prospect in baseball right now.

"The Pirates are going to rinse and repeat," Mayo said. "I don't think he'll be up on Opening Day, but the way he finished the year has me thinking he'll be pounding down that door early on from Triple-A Indianapolis, and he'll join Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller in the Pirates rotation sometime around May."

Are the Pirates about to pull a Paul Skenes with their other top pitching prospect, Bubba Chandler?

So, not only does Mayo think that a Pirates pitcher has a legitimate shot at being named NL Rookie of the Year for the second consecutive season; he also thinks it will once again be a pitcher who doesn't even start the season in the majors.

After all, the slow rollout strategy worked pretty well with Skenes; Pittsburgh might as well try it with Chandler, too. The hard-throwing right-hander was electric after arriving in Triple-A, going 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA across seven starts. He finished the year with a 10-7 record and a 3.08 ERA over his 26 appearances across Double-A and Triple-A.

It remains to be seen whether Chandler will make the Pirates' Opening Day roster (or whether he should, for that matter). But it feels almost certain that we will see him in the big leagues in 2025. Maybe he'll follow in Skenes' footsteps and take home some hardware at the end of the year, too.

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