Two important Paul Skenes storylines to watch out for at Pirates spring training

No matter what team you root for across Major League Baseball, all eyes are on Paul Skenes, the projected Cy Young winner of the National League. Even after a big rookie season highlighted by an All-Star Game start and Rookie of the Year win, there are some big things with the big right-hander that will be different this season.

These new aspects to his game will be displayed during spring training, which is where fans will get their first opportunity to see him in action for 2025.

This spring training, fans need to pay attention to these two things regarding Pirates ace Paul Skenes.

Firstly, pay attention to who he'll be throwing to. Last season, while Skenes was in Triple-A, he threw to Yasmani Grandal, who was on a rehab assignment to start his 2024 season. From there to the end of the regular season in Pittsburgh, Skenes threw to Grandal in each start.

Grandal was his personal catcher, but the Pirates have not brought the veteran back and he remains a free agent, with interest from at least three teams. Whether the Pirates are interested in bringing back Grandal is unknown to this point, but Skenes has officially returned to pitching, spotted tossing live at-bats against Adam Frazier during camp's first week.

Instead of Grandal, it appears that Joey Bart is catching Skenes to start, which is interesting, as his framing is significantly worse than Grandal's. A more defense-first option that would more closely approximate Grandal is be Endy Rodriguez, who is fresh off elbow surgery and is not an option at first base following the Spencer Horwitz injury.

Once spring training games start up in less than a week, seeing how Skenes does with a new catcher will be interesting, especially one with a significantly different glove from the one he is used to.

Something else to watch for are Skenes' new pitches that he has begun working on. He utilized six in 2024, yet will have eight to work with in 2025. Those two new offerings are a two-seam fastball and cutter, which are two fastball options to follow his four-seam and unique pitch, the splinker.

Hitters already had difficulty making contact with him last season, as he reached the 75th percentile ranking in whiff (28.7%). When they did hit Skenes' stuff, they didn't impact if very hard, as he maintained an average exit velocity of 87.8 mph. Now, with two more pitches to consider when going to bat against him, hitters are going to struggle even more to discern what is coming.

Skenes is one of the most exciting players in baseball, and these storylines and wrinkles are going to be very interesting to watch out for during spring training.