This Paul Skenes stat shows vast difference between 2025 and 2026 Pirates

If you ever needed anecdotal evidence as to why pitcher wins have become an archaic statistic, look no further than Paul Skenes' 2025 season. He led all of baseball with a 1.97 ERA and 2.36 FIP. Naturally, he unanimously won the NL Cy Young Award.

And yet, he finished the season with a .500 record at 10-10. Accounting for his no-decisions, the Pittsburgh Pirates went just 17-15 in his 32 starts. Somehow, Skenes was the unequivocal best pictcher in baseball, and his team won basically half of the games he appeared in.

That level of organizational malpractice simply couldn't stand, which is why the Pirates went out and actually brought in capable hitters over the winter. Pitcher wins may be a meaningless stat, but team wins are kind of the be-all, end-all in baseball.

I'm happy to report that we do not appear to be headed for an encore of such an ignominious feat this year. Skenes has already reached half his win total from 2025, while the Pirates are 5-3 in his eight starts.

Paul Skenes with run support may be the most unstoppable pitcher in baseball

If you take Skenes' Opening Day meltdown out of the equation, the Pirates have a 71.4% win percentage in their ace's appearances in 2026. That's a whole heck of a lot better than the 53.1% rate they were responsible for last year.

Of course, you can't literally remove a start from a pitcher's ledger, but Skenes has basically been unflappable since that disaster against the New York Mets. Over his past seven outings, the 23-year-old is doing his usual thing, pitching to a microscopic 1.31 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings.

But that's just par for the course for the best pitcher in the world. Skenes has always been this dominant. What's changed is the teammates around him — after receiving just 3.4 runs of support per game last year, the Pirates are scoring 7.25 runs per game during his starts this year.

Even if you remove the two major outliers from that sample — a 16-run outburst against the Nationals in mid-April and a 1-0 shutout win over the Diamondbacks in early May — Skenes is still getting an average of 6.83 runs of support during his starts. That's effectively double what he became accustomed to last year, and it's a sign that his 5-2 record may actually be underselling what to expect going forward.

With a capable offense now at his back, Skenes may even be able to bring pitcher wins back in vogue. If there's any pitcher in the league who can do that, it's him.

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