PIRATES

Paul Skenes took Major League Baseball by storm in his rookie season a year ago. He earned National League Rookie of the Year honors, finished third in Cy Young voting and built a list of accomplishments that could go on for days. After making his debut May 11, he made 23 starts and went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 170 strikeouts and a .198 opponents' batting average. 

Now, he wants to develop his voice in the clubhouse.

"I don't know what the character of that will be, but I'll have probably a little more say-so and obviously having established myself a little bit, but there's still a long way to go," Skenes said. "I'm not going to overstep, but winning's winning. We've got to do what we've got to do to make it happen."

That was a sentiment echoed by multiple players throughout the two days of PiratesFest at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Downtown. But the team needs someone to lead from the front and, when you're not only the best player on the team, but one of the best anywhere, there's more to it.

"There are a lot of people who put a lot of work into it. We’ve got really good people within this organization, within player development, within the front office, stuff like that. I think we owe it to them," Skenes said. "You can say whatever you want about the acquisitions and all that, but we need to play better, too."

Skenes said he worked on a lot of different things this offseason, such as learning how hitters approached their at-bats against him as the season went on. But, mostly, he's preparing for the expanded work load above his rookie-limited 133 innings.

"I'm not going to throw 240 innings, basically, but I'm going to be ready to throw 240 innings," he said. "But at some point, and it's not going to be 160 innings again, I know that. So it's going to be much more 'take the ball and pitch.' We haven't spoken about it but it doesn't affect me. Frankly, I was ready. I felt that I was ready to throw 240 innings last year, too. But you don't know what you don't know. I think toward the end of the season, I did know that my body was built up for it. I felt good in September, so that kind of told me what I did last offseason was right and the training I did during the season, too. Obviously, you don't want to be built up for 160 and throw 185. That's stupid. Build up for 240 and land where we land there."

Skenes' experience at the big-league level also helps in that respect. He had only four starts that lasted seven innings or more and 12 that lasted six or 6 1/3 innings. So, he knows how his body responded to the workload and he can use that to prepare for this season. 

The big thing for Skenes is to put himself, and the team, in a position to win.

"We have the talent and stuff to do it. We just have to pass the line," Skenes said. "I think that was something that we did really well at times last year. When we showed up, when it was my day to pitch, Bailey Falter would go seven. I was like, ‘All right, it’s my turn to go seven.’ Kind of passing the line like that. It makes it fun as a rotation to do that, to put the team in a position to win on five consecutive days. I think that’s going to be the mindset this year."

Then, there's always the conversation of the Pirates trying to lock up Skenes for the foreseeable future. Skenes said that he hasn't heard anything on that front and it is also something that hasn't been on his mindy. But the Pirates have done it in the past with Ke'Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller. So, when Ben Cherington was asked about it Saturday during the management Q&A session, he said he's open to speaking with Skenes about it.

"Obviously, Paul has become a really important player for us. The same policy will apply for him. We will be totally open-minded to that," Cherington said. "I think actually, hearing your question, where my mind first goes, is that what’s going to matter most to Paul Skenes is winning. Period. Now, if he does win, he’s going to get compensated really well. That’s part of that conversation, too, and we’ll get to that. But he cares about winning. That’s what he’s going to be most attracted to.”