Paul Skenes revives tired WBC excuse after Pirates season slips away

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t miss the postseason because of one player, one stretch or one bad decision. But if you’re making a list of reasons why a team that spent the offseason trying to contend will instead be watching October from home, Paul Skenes’ disappointing season belongs somewhere near the top.

And now, with the Pirates officially eliminated, Skenes is pointing back to a familiar explanation: the World Baseball Classic.

“There are a lot of other factors, so I don't want to put everything on that, but I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit,” Skenes told Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, explaining that pitching for Team USA disrupted the gradual buildup he normally gets during spring training.

Maybe it did. But it’s also starting to feel like an awfully convenient excuse.

Skenes made two WBC starts and threw 8 1/3 innings. He then opened the regular season and, after a rough Opening Day, immediately went on a dominant eight-start run with a 1.09 ERA. If the WBC completely derailed his preparation, it’s difficult to reconcile that explanation with the fact that Skenes looked every bit like the reigning Cy Young winner for nearly two months afterward.

The real problems came later. From May 17 through July 31, Skenes posted a 5.18 ERA across 14 starts. The Pirates went 3-11 in those games, a brutal stretch for a team that ultimately ran out of time in the Wild Card race.

Skenes' velocity also declined. He averaged 96.8 mph with his fastball this season after sitting at 98.2 mph last year and 98.9 mph the year before. For the first time in his MLB career, he failed to throw a single pitch at 100 mph.

The velocity dip is absolutely worth examining. But blaming the WBC, even partially, feels too easy when plenty of pitchers followed the same unconventional spring schedule and thrived. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Cristopher Sánchez, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nolan McLean all participated in the tournament and still managed to rank among baseball’s better starters this season.

Paul Skenes blaming WBC won’t erase disappointing Pirates season

Every pitcher is different. Different bodies respond differently. Different mechanics require different preparation. Skenes himself made clear that the WBC wasn’t the only factor. Still, this explanation lands differently now because of what the Pirates were asking from him.

Pittsburgh finally gave Skenes something resembling offensive support. The front office added legitimate bats. The club was aggressive again at the trade deadline. For once, the Pirates entered a season with expectations beyond simply hoping their young players developed.

They needed their ace to be an ace. Instead, Skenes enters his final start with a 3.91 ERA over 168 innings — hardly disastrous, but a massive step backward from the pitcher who dominated baseball a year ago.

The Pirates deserve plenty of blame elsewhere. Their first-half bullpen coughed up too many games. The rotation as a whole failed to meet expectations. Injuries took their toll. The offense, while improved, was hardly flawless.

Skenes isn’t solely responsible for Pittsburgh missing the playoffs. But the Pirates built a significant portion of their contention window around the assumption that they had one of the best pitchers on the planet taking the ball every fifth day. For long stretches this year, they didn’t.

If the WBC genuinely contributed to the mechanical and velocity issues, the Pirates and Skenes should learn from it and adjust his preparation accordingly. But after a season that slipped away in part because their biggest star wasn’t himself, “the WBC messed up my buildup” is going to sound less like an explanation and more like an excuse — especially when so many other pitchers managed just fine.

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