Ben Cherington echoing weak excuse for Paul Skenes' struggles misses bigger Pirates issue

Paul Skenes has spent most of his young career making baseball's best hitters look overmatched. So when he posts a few less-than-ace-like outings in a row, the natural reaction is to search for an explanation.

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington may have found the wrong one.

In discussing Skenes' recent stretch of struggles on his weekly radio show, Cherington pointed to Skenes' participation in the World Baseball Classic and suggested that the altered spring training buildup may be showing up now in the regular season. But if anything, Skenes' recent issues have far less to do with fatigue and far more to do with the reality that Major League hitters are finally making adjustments.

Skenes has allowed 26 hits over his last 20 innings, an 11.7 hits-per-nine rate that looks nothing like the version of Skenes that dominated through the season's first two months. During his first nine starts, allowing more than four hits in a game was practically an anomaly.

The walks have increased, too. After issuing just seven free passes across his first nine outings, Skenes has walked six batters in his last four starts alone. He even went more than a month without walking anyone before this recent stretch. That doesn't necessarily point to a tired arm, as Cherington suggests. It points to a pitcher whose opponents are making him work harder.

Blaming Paul Skenes' recent struggles on World Baseball Classic feels too easy

Hitters are spoiling more pitches, extending at-bats, and forcing Skenes deeper into counts. Naturally, that makes command harder to maintain and creates more opportunities for mistakes. The same thing eventually happens to every great pitcher. The league gathers information, builds scouting reports, accumulate film, identify tendencies, and make adjustments.

So rather than discussing whether the World Baseball Classic disrupted Skenes' spring routine, the more important question is how Pittsburgh plans to help its franchise ace counter the league's adjustments. Because teams now have over two years of Major League film on Skenes, the surprise factor is gone. The challenge now is for Skenes to develop the next layer of his game.

The good news is that we have every reason to believe he will. Hitters adjust to pitchers, and they adjusted right back. That can mean refining command, changing pitch usage, or maybe even developing an entirely new weapon.

Skenes has already shown the talent, intelligence and competitiveness required to make those adjustments, so Pirates fans shouldn't be panicking about his slump. What should concern Pirates fans, however, is hearing organizational leadership lean on convenient explanations instead of acknowledging what's actually happening.

The World Baseball Classic is an easy talking point, but the reality is much simpler. Hitters are finally squaring up Paul Skenes' fastball more consistently, extending at-bats and forcing him into uncomfortable situations.

Now comes the fun part; watching one of baseball's brightest stars figure out how to beat them again.

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