Paul Skenes set an impossible bar. The Pirates ace is undaunted after not meeting it in 2026

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes is only too aware of the impossibly high bar he set for himself during his first two years in the major leagues.

And while his third didn't come particularly close to meeting it , the Pittsburgh Pirates ace doesn't view 2026 as a failure.

“I’m not going to sit around all offseason thinking about how bad this season was,” Skenes said after Thursday after pitching 6 1/3 dominant innings in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win over St. Louis . “Because I just don’t think that’s true.”

Yes, Skenes didn't post a sub-2.00 ERA, as he did while winning NL Rookie of the Year in 2024 and Cy Young Award in 2025. Yes, he struggled with his command at times. Yes, his velocity dipped. Yes, there were days — particularly during a two-month stretch from mid-May to mid-July — in which the towering 24-year-old went winless.

His 10-11 record and a 3.82 ERA were not awful but far less than Skenes expected.

Yet for every moment of frustration, there was a moment of brilliance, the last during the seventh at sun-splashed PNC Park during Pittsburgh's final home game of the season.

On the cusp of 200 strikeouts after six innings, Skenes negotiated with manager Don Kelly hoping to get the chance to head back to the mound.

Cool, Kelly told him, but make it quick.

Skenes rewarded Kelly's gesture by having his 96th pitch of the day be among the best of the 2,896 he threw all year, a full-count 95 mph sinker that froze Leo Bernal so completely all Bernal could do was spin back toward the St. Louis dugout after plate umpire Scott Barry called strike three.

Kelly walked out to the mound a moment later and took the ball from Skenes for the final time in 2026. The crowd that came to watch Pittsburgh clinch its first non-losing season since 2018 initially booed, then rose to its feet in appreciation as Skenes sauntered down the dugout steps and out of sight.

“He got what he deserved,” Kelly said.

Even if Skenes and the Pirates didn't get the year they wanted.

A club that began the season with playoff hopes set a franchise record for home runs hit and for strikeouts thrown. It also blew a 25 save opportunities, lost rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin and center fielder Oneil Cruz for extended periods and saw its unquestioned leader labor through most of the summer.

Skenes knows if he had been a little better in June and July, Pittsburgh might have been playing meaningful baseball heading into the final week of the regular season.

“I understand the standard that was set the last couple of years, but I think there was a lot of good and stuff to get better at,” he said. “Probably some low-hanging fruit and some other stuff to address in the offseason.”

The most important number to Skenes wasn't necessarily the speed of his four-seam fastball — which dropped from 98.2 mph in average velocity last year to 96.8 mph his season but his taking the ball every time it was his rotation turn.

Making 32 starts in consecutive seasons is not something Skenes takes for granted, even as the hitters he punched out so frequently in 2024 and 2025 started punching back. Skenes gave up career highs in homers (20) and walks (49).

Still, he somehow became just the second pitcher in the history of a franchise dating to 1892 to fan 200 batters in consecutive seasons. Bob Veale did it for three straight years in the mid-1960s.

It's heady territory, even during a year in which the grind felt all too real for both Skenes and his team.

“This is my third year, and every year, at the end, we’re talking about ‘What’s it going to look like for next year?’ and I’m tired of it,” he said. "We are in a good position for next year, I know that, but it’s gonna be tough to think about that again for a whole offseason.”

Especially considering he has no idea how long the offseason might last.

Skenes is on the players' association subcommittee that is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. While he wasn't yet born during the 7 1/2-month strike that spanned the 1994-95 seasons, he knows the stakes are incredibly high.

“We have an opportunity,” he said. “We’re stewards of the game. This is our game. This is as players, it’s also the owners’ game. And we are all stewards of the game and we have to protect it.”

The sooner an agreement is reached, the sooner Skenes can turn his attention to 2027, fueled by some of the lessons he learned during a year that didn't go the way a notoriously meticulous planner planned.

“Everybody tells you, ‘You’ll be better off for it,’ and stuff like that,” Skenes said. "We’ll see. I don’t think it’s going to hurt. I definitely learned a lot, but won’t know until you’re in it again.”

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