Paul Skenes showed off nasty new pitches in Pirates' 2025 spring training debut

Pittsburgh Pirates fans had to wait an extra week to see Paul Skenes in action this spring after his originally scheduled 2025 Grapefruit League debut was rained out. However, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year reminded us on Saturday why he's worth the wait.

In his highly anticipated spring debut outing, Skenes struck out four batters and gave up four hits, one walk and one run over three innings in the Pirates' 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles. He didn't waste any time, striking out the first batter he faced in Cedric Mullins.

When his day was over, Skenes had thrown 30 of his 54 pitches for strikes and consistently touched 99 mph on the radar gun. His 23-pitch first inning may not have been the model of efficiency, but he had a surprisingly good reason for running up his pitch count.

Paul Skenes showed off nasty new pitches in Pirates' 2025 spring training debut

After taking the baseball world by storm with his hybrid "splinker" grip last season, Skenes has found yet another way to frustrate opposing hitters. Technically, he's found two more ways.

Skenes attributed his high pitch count in the first inning of Saturday's game to the fact that he was working not one, but two new pitches into his already dominant arsenal against the Orioles. The right-hander introduced a two-seamer and a cutter, the latter of which looked particularly lethal for opposing hitters.

Skenes didn't generate any strikeouts with either of his new pitches, but he was able to get hitters to chase the cutter and induce some weak contact.

“You’ve just got to mix it in. Learn some stuff about it. But it’s going to be good, I think,” Skenes said (via CJ Haddad of MLB.com). “The lineup is kind of irrelevant a little bit when you’re working on new stuff, and when you’re working on trying to figure out how they affect each other. The biggest thing was just getting in the zone and seeing where we’re at.”

Skenes already had a devastating arsenal consisting of a four-seem fastball, the "splinker," a curveball, a sweeper, a slider and a changeup. Now, hitters will have to contend with two more pitches? As Skenes himself would say, "good luck."

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