Paul Skenes' Rookie of the Year victory should implore Pirates to have big offseason

After what will go down as one of the greatest rookie pitching campaigns in MLB history, Pittsburgh Pirates pitching phenom Paul Skenes is officially the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year.

Skenes won the award, as voted upon by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, beating out fellow finalists Jackson Merrill of the San Diego Padres and Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers. All three had exceptional seasons, but Skenes was simply in a league of his own.

That explains why he received 23 of the 30 first-place votes to cruise to a landslide victory following an historic season.

Few rookie pitchers have reached the Majors facing higher expectations than Skenes did. And yet, he did the impossible and exceeded those expectations. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, Skenes made his MLB debut in May and went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA over his 23 starts. He set a Pirates rookie record with 170 strikeouts and became the first rookie pitcher to start an MLB All-Star Game since Hideo Nomo of the Dodgers did so in 1995.

Skenes was the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA below 2.20 and more than 150 strikeouts in his first 21 games and just the second pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through his first 22 Major League appearances. He is the first pitcher in Pirates history to win the award and the first Pirates rookie to win the award since outfielder Jason Bay won it in 2004.

Pirates' Paul Skenes caps off historic debut season with NL Rookie of the Year Award

Skenes is also up for another piece of hardware as a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award alongside Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves.

Though he's unlikely to win that, his ROY victory should pressure the Pirates to ensure they have an aggressive and productive offseason. They cannot waste the talent of a generational pitcher with many other promising young pieces around him.

Skenes ranked first in MLB in ERA (1.96), strikeout percentage (33.1%) and left-on-base percentage (85.6%). He finished second in FIP (2.41) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.50), tied for second in opposing batting average (.197), and third in total strikeouts (170). However, the fact that he did not pitch for the entire 2024 MLB season – through no fault of his own – will likely count against him in the Cy Young count.

Skenes is just the fifth pitcher in MLB history to be a finalist for the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards. The late Fernando Valenzuela is the only pitcher to win both, accomplishing the feat in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yup, like we said, all the more reason to go after it before the start of 2025.

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