Paul Skenes' latest warning sign should finally force Pirates' hand

At some point, the Pittsburgh Pirates have to stop trying to squeeze more innings out of Paul Skenes and start asking what they are actually accomplishing by continuing to send him to the mound.

Wednesday should have provided the answer.

Pittsburgh pushed Skenes’ start back three days specifically to give him additional recovery time following the most concerning stretch of his career. The Pirates have repeatedly maintained that Skenes is healthy and dealing with fatigue rather than an injury.

The extra rest didn’t fix much. Skenes lasted just 4.1 innings against the Tigers, allowing three runs while walking four and needing 81 pitches to record 13 outs. His velocity improved slightly from his previous start against the Miami Marlins, when he failed to reach 97 mph, but the overpowering fastball that routinely sat around 98 mph earlier this season still wasn’t there.

More troubling, neither was his command. Skenes has now walked four hitters in three of his past four starts. Before this stretch, he had done that just five times in his first 77 major-league starts.

There is no need to diagnose what is happening from the outside. If the Pirates say Skenes isn’t injured, fine. Take them at their word. That still doesn’t mean he should keep pitching.

If Skenes is fatigued enough that Pittsburgh felt compelled to alter its rotation and give him three additional days off, and he still responded with another abbreviated, inefficient outing, what exactly is the benefit of asking him to keep grinding through August and September?

Pirates' failed Paul Skenes reset makes shutting him down the only logical move

The Pirates are 63-66 and watching their postseason hopes disappear. This isn’t a situation where Pittsburgh desperately needs its ace every fifth day for a division race. The potential reward of another six or seven starts is increasingly small.

The risk doesn’t have to be a catastrophic injury, either. It can simply be continuing to push a clearly diminished pitcher through fatigue when there is little left to accomplish.

Skenes entered Wednesday with 134.2 innings this season after throwing 187.2 last year. Yes, he handled that workload remarkably well in 2025. That actually makes what is happening now more notable. His velocity is down, his command has deteriorated and extra recovery time didn't produce the reset Pittsburgh hoped for.

Shutting Skenes down wouldn't be an admission that something is secretly wrong with him. It would be an acknowledgment of what the Pirates themselves have already said: he is tired.

The Pirates need Skenes healthy and dominant for years, not merely available for a handful of largely meaningless starts at the end of a disappointing season.

They tried additional rest. It didn’t work. Now the Pirates should give Skenes the only kind of rest guaranteed to solve the workload problem: the rest of the season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow