Paul Skenes discourse has crossed a line it never needed to approach

Paul Skenes has given Pittsburgh Pirates fans plenty to worry about lately.

His fastball velocity has dropped. His command hasn’t looked nearly as sharp. He was pulled from his latest start after only five innings and 65 pitches despite allowing just one run. For a pitcher who spent his first two MLB seasons making 99 mph look routine and occasionally reaching triple digits with ease, seeing him top out at 96.5 mph naturally raises questions.

Those questions are fair. What isn't fair is turning a legitimate conversation about Skenes’ performance into an amateur evaluation of his body because somebody took a picture of him at the beach.

Skenes was photographed in Miami with his girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, and apparently that was all it took for the darkest corners of the internet to decide they were now qualified to diagnose his conditioning, commitment level and work ethic.

Controversial sports pundit Dan Clark declared that Skenes is “simply not in shape for a pro athlete” and wondered whether he is “fully committed.” Others speculated that whatever weight they believe he has gained must be contributing to his declining velocity and stamina.

Based on what, exactly? A beach photo? This is absurd.

Skenes is 9-11 with a 3.88 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. By the ridiculous standard he established during his first two seasons, those numbers feel disappointing. By normal starting-pitcher standards, they’re perfectly respectable.

There absolutely should be concern about the velocity drop. There should be questions about why a pitcher who once sat around 99 mph suddenly struggled to crack 97. There should be scrutiny when the Pirates remove their ace after only 65 pitches and insist that nothing is physically wrong.

Those are baseball questions. Whether Skenes has visible abs at the beach is not.

Paul Skenes deserves scrutiny for how he’s pitching, but not for how his body looks

Nobody looking at a photograph knows what Skenes weighs. Nobody knows what his target playing weight is. Nobody knows his body-fat percentage, his strength program, his offseason training plan or what Pirates medical and performance staff have asked him to do. And yet people are confidently diagnosing the problem anyway.

That isn't analysis. It's body-shaming disguised as baseball discussion.

The implication that Skenes must not be “fully committed” because he spent an off day at the beach is equally ridiculous. Professional athletes are allowed to have lives. They're allowed to take vacations, eat dinner, go outside and spend time with their significant others without it becoming evidence in some imaginary trial over their dedication.

There’s also something particularly gross about how quickly sports discourse turns into body-shaming the second an athlete struggles. Skenes is a professional pitcher, not an aesthetic object. Evaluate the fastball. Evaluate the command. Evaluate the mechanics. Question the Pirates’ handling of him. Question whether he should keep pitching if something physically isn’t right.

But leave the guy’s stomach alone.

There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of Skenes available right now. His stuff hasn't looked the same. His results have declined. His velocity is concerning. The Pirates' handling of him has invited questions.

Talk about all of it. But if your analysis begins and ends with staring at a shirtless photo of Skenes and deciding his body doesn't meet your personal definition of what a professional athlete should look like, you're not analyzing baseball. You're just being cruel.

Leave the guy alone.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow