How might Skenes, Bucs manage workload down the stretch?

PITTSBURGH -- The Paul Skenes show has lived up to its billing. His first taste of the Majors has been one of the greatest ever for a Pirates rookie, one that should get him Rookie of the Year consideration.

Thursday at PNC Park was another chapter in that Rookie of the Year campaign, as Skenes tossed six innings of two-hit ball with nine strikeouts in the Pirates' 7-0 win over the Reds. No Reds runner would advance past first base against Skenes, and a six-run fifth inning -- highlighted by a bases-clearing double by Bryan De La Cruz in his first three-hit game as a Pirate -- was more than enough insurance for the pitcher who leads baseball in ERA since his May 11 debut (2.16).

And for anyone who was a bit concerned with his human-like velocities the last few times out, he averaged 98.6 mph on his heater on Thursday, even hitting triple digits for the first time since July 23.

"Execution when I needed it was pretty good,” Skenes said. “Got behind in some counts, but executed when I needed to. Don't think it was notably better or worse than the last couple weeks. The results were just better."

The results in his rookie year have been terrific, but this was never billed as just a one-season engagement for Skenes. And given the Pirates’ low playoff odds, the question becomes how they should handle their pitching phenom down the stretch.

With his 131 1/3 combined innings this season (104 in the Majors, 27 1/3 with Triple-A Indianapolis), he has already thrown more competitive innings than he ever has in a season. So how far do the Pirates push him?

For now, they’re going to let him keep pitching.

"There is no immediate plan to shut him down,” said manager Derek Shelton pregame. “There has never been any immediate plans to shut him down. How we monitor that, whether it’s an innings limit or a workload limit per game, we’ll be thoughtful about that."

That thoughtfulness is in the form of some concessions that have not been compromised this year. The last box the Pirates wanted Skenes to check before coming up to the Majors was for him to pitch on regular four days' rest. While that’s certainly in the cards in 2025 and beyond, Skenes has pitched on five or six days' worth of rest before every start, a transitionary step between pitching once a week in college versus what the professional game can demand. He’s going to continue to get at least that extra day the rest of this year.

Thursday seemed to be an example of what the future might hold for Skenes. He was terrific but was pulled after 87 pitches, his fewest since his Major League debut. There was little need to push him that extra inning with a touchdown lead and the middle relief mostly rested, but it could be a preview of Skenes’ September starts.

So why go through these extra steps rather than just shut him down? Because Skenes has never pitched a full professional season. The College World Series is held in June, so Skenes has never pitched this deep into a year before. To build him up for the future, he’s going to pitch through at least most of a season.

"The calendar's huge,” Shelton said. “You have to learn how to get through a Major League season. It's really important and most guys are able to do it. You look at a majority, if not 95% of Major League players -- not just Major League pitchers who are doing it -- they have at least one season in the Minor Leagues, if not two. What he's doing is something that's very different, it's very special. It's something we also have to be very mindful of. He's learning how to pitch on Aug. 22. He's gonna learn how to pitch in September, all those things.”

Skenes saw the alternative last year, needing to shut down after pitching in the College World Series and then build back up for the Minor League portion of his season. By his admission it’s a “weird way” to go about a season, but it was also out of his control.

His workload has been monitored ever since the Pirates landed in Bradenton, Fla., for Spring Training. Nothing has changed, as making sure he’s prepared for future years was always a priority.

"That's one of the big things of this season, just getting used to how long the season is. It's super important to be used to that, to have a better plan for the offseason and all the seasons going forward so that it's not a shock to my system,” Skenes said. “If we're making the season longer incrementally, I think that's a lot worse than making the season longer one time.

"As frustrating as it was at the beginning of the season with starting in Triple-A and the innings limit there, I don't think we could have done it any better."