Pirates top prospect Paul Skenes misses action due to illness

It is always scary to see a pitcher get scratched after being scheduled to throw. This is what happened today with the Pirates' top prospect Paul Skenes. Skenes was scheduled to be the 2nd pitcher in against the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon. However, that did not happen.

According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the former first-overall selection was scratched due to illness. Here is the post from Mackey dealing with the star prospect:

For Pirates fans, this is a sense of relief. Last year at this time, the Bucs lost two pitchers who were going to help the team in 2023. Both JT Brubaker and Michael Burrows are making their way back from Tommy-John Surgery. So it was okay to panic a little bit when the news of Skenes missing his appearance came to light.

Overall this is disappointing for fans and the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization as Spring Training is nearly halfway over.

For fans obviously, this was going to be an attractive game to purchase tickets to. The same thing happened last week when Skenes took the mound against the Baltimore Orioles spring training squad, the stadium was packed. I checked myself just to see sand tickets behind home plate were going for over $100 and the cheapest were around $40... for a Spring Training game. So yes, fans who were planning to watch the former LSU ace definitely were likely let down today.

Beyond the pure fan side of it, this is just disappointing to not see him get to go through with his opportunity. The team has already announced that Skenes will start in the Minor Leagues but will continue to be a part of Big League camp. So that means time is limited as are the innings on the mound. So it is tough to see Skenes potentially miss out on that opportunity today, but he was sick so what are you going to do? At least there is nothing more to be concerned about.