Paul Skenes shows off two more ways to frustrate hitters in Spring Training debut

Pirates righty Paul Skenes brought his two newest pitches to the bump Saturday against the Orioles

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes enjoyed a tremendous rookie campaign in 2024. The right-hander posted an 11-3 record with the Pirates with an ERA of just 1.96, along with a WHIP of 0.947 while averaging 12 strikeouts per nine innings. For his efforts, Skenes was named the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game, secured NL Rookie of the Year honors, and finished third in NL Cy Young voting.

Now on the cusp of his second MLB campaign, Skenes wants to make life even tougher for hitters.

Skenes was on the bump Saturday for his Spring Training debut against the Baltimore Orioles and flashed two new pitches: A cutter, and a two-seam fastball. The righty was set to debut earlier this spring, but that outing was rained out.

He started the outing Saturday against Baltimore right where he finished, striking out Cedric Mullins to open the bottom of the first. Skenes lasted three innings, striking out four and giving up three hits, along with one run.

But it was the two new pitches — especially the cutter — that caught the attention of many. Rob Friedman shared a video of Skenes’ cutter on social media, as Skenes got Ryan O’Hearn to swing and miss on the cutter over the inner half of the plate:

Friedman then shared an overlay of Skenes throwing the cutter and the fastball, to highlight just how tough that combination will be on hitters:

Skenes, who finished the day having thrown 53 pitches, 30 of them for strikes, talked about mixing in the two pitches after the outing.

“You’ve just got to mix it in. Learn some stuff about it. But it’s going to be good, I think,” said the right-hander. “The lineup is kind of irrelevant a little bit when you’re working on new stuff, and when you’re working on trying to figure out how they affect each other. The biggest thing was just getting in the zone and seeing where we’re at.”

Skenes already had a devastating arsenal to rely on when on the bump, leading with a four-seam fastball that averages in the 98 MPH range, a sinker, a curveball, a sweeper, a slider, and a changeup. According to Statcast Skenes threw the four-seamer 39% of the time last year, followed by the sinker (28%), the curveball (11%), and the sweeper (10%).

Adding two more pitches to that lineup?

That really will make life tougher on opposing hitters this year.