Flame-thrower Paul Skenes is currently the third-best prospect in all of baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates' top prospect as well. The 2023 first-overall pick is expected to get called up to the big leagues at some point in 2024 as he continues to dominate hitters in Triple-A, but Skenes has zero clue when that could be.

The 21-year-old made an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show and said he's in the dark about when he will make his big league debut.

“I'll be honest you guys know just about as well as I do as to when I'm going up,” Skenes shared.

Earlier this week, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spoke on the plan for Skenes and explained why they're in no rush to promote him, via MLB.com:

“With Paul, we've been very intentional about how we're building his volume coming into the season with a goal of really accomplishing two things,” Cherington said. “One is to try and get him to an appropriate total volume for 2024 coming off of last year, where he pitched a full college season and then just a little bit of pro ball.”

“We don't want to go from zero to 100 right away,” Cherington continued. “Paul's so important to us long term, so we want to be thoughtful of that.”

That does make perfect sense. Paul Skenes pitched an entire college season in 23′ at LSU en route to a CWS title then made the jump to pro ball. It's understandable that Pittsburgh wants him to get more innings in the minors before he steps on a mound at PNC Park.

Paul Skenes is dealing in Triple-A

Skenes has made four starts for Triple-A Indianapolis and he's yet to give up a single run. The right-hander has allowed just five hits in 12.2 innings of work while walking a mere five hitters. Opponents are batting just .116. Needless to say, Skenes is proving his worth.

The youngster was asked by McAfee about his eye-popping fastball velocity, which sits in the 98-102 mph range. Skenes explained that he wasn't always a hard thrower:

“It didn't develop until the last couple of years, really. I mean, just growing into my body and getting stronger, that kind of thing, I think that was the biggest thing. I mean, when I was in high school, I was only throwing like 86.”

There's no question Skenes will be the ace for many years to come in Pittsburgh, and while he may be ready to contribute already, the franchise doesn't need to rush his arrival. Skenes' most recent outing came on Thursday night where he once again dealt, striking out eight across 3.1 frames while surrendering just one hit.

That was Skenes' longest start yet this season. When he gets to the big leagues he'll obviously pitch deeper into games but for now, it's not necessary. The hype is undoubtedly real about the former LSU Tiger though, who is one of the best pitching prospects in years.

For the time being, he's just enjoying the ride and showing the Bucs he is indeed a star in the making. That becomes more and more evident every single outing.