The Pittsburgh Pirates made star pitcher Paul Skenes from LSU the first overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, and it sounds like his new teammates are ready to welcome him to the show sooner rather than later.
All-Star pitcher Mitch Keller, who was once the top prospect in the Pirates pipeline himself, told Jason Mackey of Post-Gazette Sports that he's hopeful the Pirates can get their new ace “up here as soon as possible.”
Mitch Keller knows a little something about being up in the bigs early, receiving his first major league action as a 23-year-old back in 2019. It might not have gone all that great for Keller initially with the Pirates (7.13 ERA in 48 IP), but just four years later, he's an All-Star and one of the key cogs behind Pittsburgh's surprising start to the season.
Paul Skenes, 21, is fresh off one of the most dominant collegiate seasons in recent memory. Skenes led all of NCAA Division 1 with 209 strikeouts in 122 2/3 innings, including a sparkling 1.69 ERA for the championship LSU Tigers. Skenes is regarded as one of the best college pitching prospects since Stephen Strasburg.
With the Pirates still in striking distance of the division-leading Cincinnati Reds (8.5 GB), Skenes addressed the idea of an early debut with MLB.com.
“I think my stuff is big league ready,” Skenes said. “But to be honest, not being in professional baseball yet … I think there's some stuff that I'm probably going to have to figure out along the way because I just haven't been exposed to professional baseball. With that said, my end goal is to be in the big leagues as long as possible and as soon as possible, so I'm going to do whatever it takes along the way to accomplish that goal.”
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