How did Skenes' season compare with other ROY pitchers?

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On Monday, Paul Skenes’ historic rookie season was recognized by the Baseball Writers' Association of America when he was named as the winner of the National League’s Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award. Looking at his stats, it’s hard to make a case against him.

And while we’re looking at those stats, there’s just one question left: Where does Skenes’ rookie season compare to the other Rookie of the Year (ROY) winners? Including Skenes and Luis Gil this year, 42 pitchers have won the award since it was introduced in 1947.

Was Skenes’ season among the best? It’s worth a look.

• Skenes joins exclusive club of No. 1 picks to win ROY

Earned run average has been the go-to stat for assessing pitchers for decades, but not every ERA is created equal. Relievers have smaller sample sizes -- Devin Williams recorded a 0.33 ERA in his Rookie of the Year campaign, but pitched only 27 innings in 2020 -- and different eras have different offensive outputs. But it’s a good starting spot.

ERA

1. Devin Williams, MIL, 2020 -- 0.33
2. Gregg Olson, BAL, 1989 -- 1.69
3. Huston Street, A’s, 2005 -- 1.72
4. Andrew Bailey, A’s, 2009 -- 1.84
5. Paul Skenes, 2024 -- 1.96

All four of the pitchers ahead of Skenes were relievers, and his ERA is right in line with them. The lowest ERA for a starter was Stan Bahnsen, who posted a 2.05 ERA in 1968, the so-called Year of the Pitcher. Bahnsen’s ERA+ -- which weighs league output and the ballpark -- that season was 140, meaning it was 40% better than the League average.

That’s really good, but is it all-time good? Let’s take a look at pitchers who logged at least 100 innings this time:

ERA+

1. Paul Skenes -- 214
2. (tie) José Fernández, MIA, 2013 -- 176
2. (tie) Todd Worrell, STL, 1986 -- 176

Expand the sample size and Skenes stands alone among Rookie of the Year winners. His ERA was less than half of the league average of 4.08, something no other starter on this list has done.

Strikeouts were Skenes’ calling card, and admittedly, this might be tougher to compare to other pitchers. There are simply more strikeouts in today’s game than in previous decades. Skenes and Tom Seaver both struck out 170 batters their rookie years, but Skenes did it in 133 innings. Seaver did it in 251 innings.

Skenes’ 170 strikeouts are tied for 10th in this category, but eight of those ahead of him threw at least 190 innings.

Let's look instead at strikeout rates:

STRIKEOUTS PER NINE INNINGS

1. Devin Williams -- 17.7
2. Craig Kimbrel, ATL, 2011 -- 14.8
3. Kerry Wood, CHC, 1998 -- 12.6
4. Paul Skenes -- 11.5

Williams’ small sample size strikes again, so Skenes has to settle for fourth here. But what if the ratio is how many strikeouts the pitcher had per walk?

STRIKEOUTS PER WALK

1. Devin Williams -- 5.9
2. Paul Skenes -- 5.3
3. Craig Kimbrel -- 4

Williams is in front again, but you can see the gap between Skenes and Kimbrel. Nobody else had a four-to-one ratio, and Skenes was more than five to one.

Speaking of walks, keeping runners off the bases is half the battle. Again, Skenes is near the top of the list at doing that.

Walks and Hits per nine innings

1. Devin Williams -- 0.63
2. (tie) Andrew Bailey -- 0.88
2. (tie) Neftalí Feliz, TEX, 2009 -- 0.88
4. Paul Skenes -- 0.95

Here’s Skenes hanging out with the relievers again. Fernández was the previous record holder for starters at 0.98, and they’re the only two ROY pitchers who averaged less than one base runner per inning.

But what about wins? Skenes’ 11 wins is pretty pedestrian, but it came with only three losses. How does his winning percentage rank among pitchers who started at least 20 games?

Winning percentage for starting pitchers

1. Paul Skenes -- .786
2. Bob Grim, NYY, 1954 -- .769
3. Gary Peters, CHW, 1963 -- .704

Skenes may have only won 11 games, but when you pair it with just three losses, it makes him the most effective starter at getting the W.

Finally, the big one: Wins Above Replacement (WAR), the usual go-to stat for comparing players from different eras.

The problem is that it is also dependent on sample size. Skenes’ 5.9 WAR, according to Baseball Reference, is tied with Bahnsen for seventh among ROY pitchers. Skenes pitched 133 innings. With the exception of Fernández, everyone else threw at least 110 more innings than that.

Instead, let’s look at Wins Above Average (WAA). How many games did your team win compared to if a league average player had received the same amount of playing time?

Wins Above Average

1. Mark Fidrych, DET, 1976 -- 7.3
2. (tie) Paul Skenes -- 4.8
2. (tie) José Fernández -- 4.8
2. (tie) John Montefusco, SFG, 1975 -- 4.8

Fidrych is the WAR leader, too (9.6), and The Bird’s rookie campaign was one of the best seasons in baseball history. Skenes has to settle for a tie of second, which is again impressive given his smaller sample size compared to everyone else.

• How Skenes can level up even more in 2025

So where does Skenes’ rookie campaign rank among this fraternity of ROY winners? Probably somewhere near the top. It’s hard to argue against Fidrych’s bulk stats or Williams’ rate stats, but if you value ERA, wins, strikeouts and quality innings pitched, Skenes is universally near the top of the list.

Now let’s see what’s on deck in 2025.