Padres in total denial with Pirates, Paul Skenes troll attempt at Petco Park

As much as last season was another miserable campaign for Pittsburgh Pirates fans, they could at least take solace in Paul Skenes being named 2024 NL Rookie of the Year. He became the second ever Pirates player to win the award, with it coming a mere 498 days after he was selected first overall in the 2023 MLB Draft.

However, in a classic case of not being able to let something go, it appears people in San Diego don't agree Skenes deserved to win his prestigious award. As they welcome fans to their home park, they're trying to erase Skene's accomplishment.

Living in denial!

Now, on the one hand, we can appreciate if this is just a case of showing a sense of humor and having some fun. but you know there's also those who genuinely believe Jackson Merrill should have been named NL Rookie of the Year last season.

Pirates trolled by Padres with Jackson Merrill vote of confidence over Paul Skenes

In the interest of fairness and objectivity, there's no denying Merrill enjoyed a hugely successful 2024. He excelled at the plate, as evidenced by 24 home runs and 90 RBI, on his way to an .826 OPS and 127 OPS+.

As per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, Merrill proved to be clutch with five game-tying or go-ahead homers in the ninth inning or later, becoming the first rookie and youngest player to do this since the expansion era began in 1961. He was also a standout in center field, even though he had never played the position at all prior to last year.

Despite how impressive this all sounds, it still doesn't compare to what Skenes achieved as one of the most dominant players at his position, full stop — this includes being named the NL starter for the All-Star Game. He was quite simply electric as he produced a 1.96 ERA, 2.44 FIP, 0.947 WHIP, and 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

As noted by Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, Skenes led all NL pitchers (with at least 130 innings pitched) in ERA, strikeout rate, WHIP and strikeout rate minus walk rate. Interestingly, this alludes to another argument by Padres fans — that Merrill produced his success over 156 games, compared to "only" 23 starts by his Pittsburgh rival.

In this respect though Skenes once again proved his value with a 5.9 WAR, compared to 4.4 by Merrill (according to Baseball Reference). And for everyone arguing Merrill's success helped propel the Padres to the playoffs, we would counter that Skenes accumulated all of his success despite the considerable shortcomings of the Pirates.

We can't stress enough that Merrill in his own right had a tremendous campaign with the Padres. However, when you break it all down, Skenes was more than worthy of his award, which came courtesy of receiving 23 of the 30 first-place votes.

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