The Pittsburgh Pirates might have a Paul Skenes problem on their hands, something that nobody expected to say just a few months ago. Skenes, who is widely regarded as a top-two pitcher in the sport, at the very worst, simply hasn't been great throughout this year.
His fastball is down, some other metrics suggest that he's getting hit harder than usual, and all in all, the former LSU standout just hasn't thrown the baseball at the level everybody expects him to.
It’s gotten to the point where some have suggested that Skenes is actually hurting the team more than he's helping.
I wouldn't go that far because I still have a lot of trust in him figuring things out, and every player in the world goes through a rough stretch at any moment.
There's never been a player in Major League Baseball history who has been perfect every single day.
In his latest outing, Skenes was taken out after 65 pitches. It raised a lot of questions on social media, in the media, and among the fan base.
It remained unclear why that happened, but it didn't seem to be for any reason other than Don Kelly believing he had to do so.
Speaking to reporters about it, Skenes says he trusts his manager, which is a very promising sign given everything currently going on.
“You see guys yell at the manager when they’re coming out for a mound visit, and I’ve never done that,” Skenes said, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “There probably will be a point in my career when I do that, but I’m always straight with Donnie, and he’s always straight with me. He’s the manager, and I don’t ever really argue with it.”
Kelly later spoke about some of the expectations Skenes has faced throughout his career.
This is, in a way, a guy who has had to deal with a ton of pressure. Living up to that hype every single day is not an easy task, even though Skenes has done so in other parts of his career.
“I think you see a guy that set the bar so high from his first two years in the major leagues that is going out there trying to still achieve that same bar,” Kelly said before Tuesday’s game. “ ... The league is adjusting back, and Paul is gonna have to fight to make the adjustment back to the league.”