Jackson Merrill’s old Paul Skenes quote has aged painfully for Pirates

Two years ago, Paul Skenes beat Jackson Merrill for National League Rookie of the Year.

The Pittsburgh Pirates can keep that one. Because when Merrill reflected on that race earlier this season, he inadvertently highlighted the much bigger prize Pittsburgh still hasn't managed to give Skenes a chance to pursue.

Before Merrill finally faced Skenes for the first time in April, the San Diego Padres star admitted that Skenes deserved to win Rookie of the Year in 2024. A 1.96 ERA tends to make for a pretty convincing argument.

But Merrill also admitted something else. He was glad he didn't have to face him.

“My mind was on just getting to the playoffs,” Merrill told MLB.com. “I wanted to get to the playoffs and win in the playoffs.”

Six months later, that quote lands quite a bit differently in Pittsburgh. Merrill wanted to get to October, and he has. Again and again.

Skenes hasn't once.

That's not a reflection of Skenes, obviously. It's an indictment of what the Pirates have (or haven't) managed to build around one of baseball's biggest stars.

Merrill debuted in 2024 and immediately helped San Diego reach the postseason. The Padres swept the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card Series before pushing the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers to five games in the NLDS. Merrill starred in October, becoming the youngest Padre ever to homer in a postseason game.

San Diego returned to the playoffs in 2025, and again in 2026, already having swept the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card round to advance to the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers. That's three major-league seasons for Merrill with three postseason appearances.

Merrill wasn't worried about winning an individual award in 2024. He wanted to play meaningful games in October. He wanted to win them. And the Padres built a roster capable of giving him that opportunity immediately.

The Pirates, meanwhile, have given Skenes individual accolades. They've given him All-Star appearances, awards, standing ovations and national television starts. They have gotten to market one of baseball's most recognizable young pitchers and watch him accomplish things Pittsburgh hasn't seen from a starter in generations. What they haven't given him is October.

Paul Skenes beat Jackson Merrill for ROY, but Pirates are losing the bigger battle

There was something almost charming about the Skenes-Merrill Rookie of the Year debate when both players arrived in 2024. Merrill had the everyday impact. Skenes had the historic dominance. San Diego fans argued for their guy. Pittsburgh fans argued for theirs.

Skenes ultimately received 23 of 30 first-place votes, and even Merrill acknowledged this spring that nobody was more deserving.

But two years later, who really cares?

Pittsburgh finally took a legitimate step forward in 2026, finishing 82-80 and posting its first winning season since 2018. That's better than another 90-loss disaster, and it's better than spending September waiting for the season to mercifully end.

It also wasn't enough. Not with Skenes already three seasons into his major-league career, and certainly not when teams such as San Diego keep demonstrating that having an elite young player isn't supposed to trigger an indefinite waiting period before an organization decides to seriously pursue October.

Merrill is 23 years old and has already appeared in three postseasons. Skenes is one of the best pitchers on the planet and still doesn't know what it feels like to throw a playoff pitch. That's absurd.

And this isn't some argument that San Diego has constructed the perfect organization. The Padres haven't won a World Series during Merrill's career. They've had their own roster flaws, financial questions and postseason disappointments. But they've cleared the most basic hurdle of actually getting there.

Merrill's comments from April weren't intended as criticism of Pittsburgh. He was simply explaining his mindset during a Rookie of the Year race two seasons earlier. Facing Skenes might have hurt San Diego's playoff chances, and those playoff chances mattered more to him than an individual award.

That's exactly how competitive players are supposed to think. Which raises the uncomfortable question for the Pirates: How long before Skenes starts looking at his own career the same way?

The Pirates don't need to celebrate merely having Skenes anymore. They need to take advantage of having him. Pittsburgh has already wasted three postseason opportunities with him on the roster, and Merrill's career is a reminder of just how quickly those opportunities can pile up when an organization actually builds a playoff team around its young star.

Two years ago, Pirates fans got to celebrate Skenes beating Merrill for Rookie of the Year. Since then, Merrill has kept chasing the award he actually cared about. It's long past time for the Pirates to give Skenes the chance to do the same.

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