Former MLB All-Star spots concerning change in Paul Skenes mechanics with Pirates

It seems that no matter what the Pittsburgh Pirates try, they still can't get Paul Skenes right. The Pirates gave Skenes extra rest before his last start on August 19, yet still received a subpar performance that featured four walks and three earned runs allowed in just 4 1/3 innings.

The most recent failure has ignited calls for the ace right-hander to be shut down for the season as the search for answers continues. Whether or not Pittsburgh is bold enough to make that move remains to be seen.

Whether or not Skenes continues to pitch this season, the bigger issue at play is actually finding a solution to what's plagued him. He can't get back on track if he doesn't know what he needs to fix. Former three-time All-Star Dan Plesac thinks he knows what Skenes' issue is, and he broke it down on MLB Network.

"He gets more rotational this way as opposed to up and down. What happens, and why he's struggling with the arm side, if you rotate and your hip and your shoulder start to come this way, the arm starts to drag behind," Plesac explained. "He's throwing away from where he's going."

Paul Skenes' own routine may be the cause of his recent struggles for the Pirates

Essentially, Plesac is saying that Skenes is rotating too much to the point where his front side is flying open and he's throwing around the ball rather than through it. That can cause command issues as the ball possesses more armside movement, while also negatively impacting his velocity as his momentum is not optimized.

It's not the first time that we've heard that a mechanical issue could be impacting the 24-year-old. Earlier this month, Rob Friedman, aka The Pitching Ninja, posited that a simple mechanical tweak could get Skenes back on track.

Friedman specifically mentioned some of Skenes' work in pregame workouts and how he works on twisting his body and working with water bags to facilitate keeping his body loose and able to rotate. In particular, Friedman mentioned that he could be simply overdoing it, and his body is getting out of sync during his delivery as a result.

Friedman also pointed out that two pitches that Skenes has seen get hit the hardest during this slump are his changeup and his splinker, both of which naturally move to the arm side, but might be flattening out and not dropping/fadiing as much as they should, similar to what Plesac was saying.

Interestingly, MLB.com's Travis Sawchick did his own analysis of Skenes' struggles and spoke to some experts at Driveline who noted that early in the season, Skenes was stepping across his body, essentially cutting off his own momentum.

Over the first two months of the season, Skenes posted a 2.89 ERA, which, while significantly better than what he has recorded during this recent downturn, was nearly a run higher than his 1.96 career ERA entering 2026.

Putting this all together, it seems as if Skenes' mechanics have not been right all season long, and that his current struggles might be an overcorrection from an earlier issue that had him throwing across his body earlier in the year.

It would make sense, and it could explain why it's been so hard for him to fix. Sometimes during the heat of the moment, it can be difficult to work through a mechanics issue without swinging the pendulum too far back in the other direction and exacerbating things. To that end, maybe a shutdown to help him work through these glitches at his own pace is the best solution for everyone.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow