ESPN blaming Paul Skenes for Pirates’ playoff failure is wildly unfair

Paul Skenes has not been Paul Skenes in 2026. That much is fair.

Calling him the biggest reason the Pittsburgh Pirates aren't headed to the postseason, however, is not.

ESPN's Bradford Doolittle named Skenes Pittsburgh's biggest disappointment of the season, pointing to his 10-11 record, 3.78 ERA and, especially, the Pirates' 13-17 record in his 30 starts. The argument is that Pittsburgh finally gave Skenes a better team, only for its superstar ace to regress when the Pirates needed him most.

There is truth buried in there. There just isn't nearly enough context.

Start with Skenes himself. His 3.78 ERA is unquestionably disappointing after the absurd standard he established during his first two seasons. But "mediocrity" is an awfully strong characterization for a pitcher with a 3.23 FIP, 1.13 WHIP and 185 strikeouts against 46 walks in 162 innings. His ERA- is 87, meaning he has still performed comfortably better than league average by that metric.

That's regression from greatness. It isn't mediocrity.

ESPN makes Paul Skenes the face of a Pirates failure he didn’t create

More importantly, Pittsburgh's record when Skenes pitches isn't solely his responsibility.

Saturday at Wrigley Field provided the perfect example. Skenes allowed two runs across seven innings and departed with Pittsburgh leading 3-2. Gregory Soto then allowed two runs in the eighth, and the Pirates lost 4-3. That counts as another loss in the supposedly damning 13-17 team record behind Skenes. What exactly was he supposed to do — pitch the eighth, too?

And bullpen failures haven't exactly been isolated. By June 28, Pirates relievers had already blown 17 of 34 save opportunities.

Then consider what happened to the supposedly dominant rotation around Skenes. Mitch Keller suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in August. All-Star Braxton Ashcraft, who owns a 3.65 ERA over 165 1/3 innings, landed on the injured list in September with arm discomfort.

The Pirates also spent August collapsing offensively while injuries tore through the lineup, putting themselves in such a deep hole that their September resurgence has come too late.

Skenes deserves criticism. Pittsburgh entered this season expecting one of baseball's best pitchers, and it hasn't consistently gotten that version. But there's a massive difference between saying Skenes hasn't been dominant enough and saying he's the biggest reason Pittsburgh isn't a playoff team.

The Pirates didn't need Skenes to repeat a Cy Young season to make October. They needed the rest of the roster to stop requiring him to be Superman every fifth day.

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