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Despite entering only his second season in MLB, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes is highly thought of among MLB players, fans, and media members.
Skenes' dominant rookie season turned heads, and although he is just 22 years old and has fewer than 25 games in the majors and zero in the playoffs, most executives and scouts polled by ESPN for its 2025 season survey chose Skenes as the pitcher they would most trust in a must-win game.
The second-year pitcher earned eight of the 17 votes, beating out the Philadelphia Phillies' Zack Wheeler (3), Atlanta Braves' Spencer Strider and Chris Sale (2 and 2), and Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal (2).
“I'm only picking Skenes because he doesn't look or act anything like a 22-year-old pitcher,” said an NL executive, via ESPN's Jesse Rogers. “Even without the experience, I'd take him for one game.”
An AL executive said Skenes “wasn't a hard pick.”
Last year, Skenes finished third in the NL Cy Young Award voting, only behind Wheeler and winner Sale, both of whom comprised all of the first-place votes. Skenes was the most popular third-place votegetter and received one second-place vote.
Skenes, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, was expected to be good. After all, he had powered LSU to a national championship that year with a furious fastball, which helped him go 13-2 with an ERA of 1.69 and 209 strikeouts, the latter of which broke both LSU and SEC records. However, most did not think Skenes could be as good as quickly as he proved himself to be.
While Skenes' debut, a four-inning outing, did not get to show his full potential, his second appearance was dazzling. On May 17, Skenes allowed zero hits, walked one, and struck out 11 against the Chicago Cubs. Skenes, who similarly no-hit the Milwaukee Brewers in seven innings pitched on July 11, had an unblemished record for the most two months of his MLB career, during which he had a 1.90 ERA.
Unsurprisingly, Skenes was named the Pirates' Opening Day starter, making him the fastest No. 1 pick to achieve the honor, and in the season debut, he struck out seven and allowed two earned runs over 5.1 innings. When Skenes exited the game, Pittsburgh led 4-1. One of the runners he left on base scored after he was replaced, and the Pirates two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to lose 5-4 to the Miami Marlins.
