BRADENTON, Fla. — Whether Paul Skenes was straight-faced serious or acting intentionally ignorant to protect a new pitch before its unveiling in a game, only the Pittsburgh Pirates ace knows.
But Skenes swore that he’s never heard of the “sleeper” despite a revelation late last month on MLB Network that the 6-foot-6, 260-pound right-hander has a new offering that’s a slower version of his sweeper.
“Yeah, I have no idea what that is. I genuinely have no idea where that came from, so I couldn’t tell you anything about it,” Skenes said after Wednesday’s workout at Pirate City, the first official day for pitchers and catchers of spring training. “It’s just pretty much the same stuff — hopefully better — but, yeah, no more made-up pitches.”
Pirates ace Paul Skenes says there is no “sleeper” (slower version of his sweeper) or cutter being added to his seven-pitch repertoire, but he does share a goal. pic.twitter.com/8vpExgsggl
— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 11, 2026
That might sound boring, but it’s part of his brilliance. And forgive Skenes if “Boring Before Brilliance” is the made-up pitch he filmed in an ad for PNC Bank last spring. The baseball world has learned not to sleep on Skenes, especially when it comes to new pitches.
In between being the first overall selection of the 2023 MLB Draft and starting in the 2024 All-Star Game as a rookie, Skenes popularized the “splinker.” The 94-mph splitter-sinker hybrid — which served as an off-speed version of his four-seam fastball that touched triple digits — left even veteran hitters flailing and flustered.
After winning National League Rookie of the Year in 2024 and the NL Cy Young Award in unanimous voting last year, when he led the major leagues with a 1.97 ERA and the NL with a 0.95 WHIP, the 23-year-old Skenes continues to search for ways to be even better this season.
To Skenes, that starts with winning. At 10-10, he became the first starting pitcher to win the Cy Young with a .500 record or worse as the Pirates lost 91 games and finished last in the NL Central. Skenes doesn’t just want to lead the Pirates back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade. He’s on record that he wants to win a World Series with Pittsburgh, which hasn’t happened since 1979.
Pirates manager Don Kelly on what 2025 NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes can do to become even more dominant. pic.twitter.com/T26DKHE8C2
— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 11, 2026
“In true Paul fashion, he’s down here working his tail off every day out there,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He’s winning the Cy Young, and that’s not what drives Paul. Winning is what drives Paul. And we’re going to win in Pittsburgh. And that’s the thing that (when) he wakes up every day, that drives him to be the best version of himself. And he uses that to help his teammates and drive them, as well.”
For Skenes to become an even more dominant version of himself — he has yet to have back-to-back games with double-digit strikeouts, pitch a shutout or toss a no-hitter — it will require a different dynamic than finding a new pitch with which to fool hitters.
Instead, true to his nature, Skenes is embracing the concept of being boring. His goal is to pitch with more consistency, not necessarily by adding a sleeper or cutter to an arsenal that already features seven offerings but sharpening his pitch selection and sequencing.
“I’ve been learning the past two years, just learning about what the big leagues is like and learning about myself, learning how to get big-league hitters out,” Skenes said. “So, I’ll continue to learn. But the self-awareness, I think, is higher now than it was two years ago, even a year ago. …
“It’s just continuing to evolve. Hitters are going to have different approaches off me, different plans off me. And we’ll have different plans off them. So, you look at it over the course of a season or two seasons or whatever, but really it’s a game-by-game, pitch-by-pitch thing that adds up to a season or two seasons. So, it’s just going one day at a time, one pitch at a time, and letting it go how it will.”
Pirates catcher Henry Davis, who served as Skenes’ battery mate for the final 28 of his 32 starts, doesn’t see any changes in the righty’s behavior or pitching routine, aside from the shift in schedule while preparing to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic early next month.
“Nah, I think we would be surprised if he did,” Davis said. “You know what you’re going to get. He works every day like he’s the worst player here, like he’s at the bottom of the depth chart.”
Where Skenes spoke about the actual statistics on the back of a baseball card, he spent the past five months focusing on the underlying numbers to identify areas of improvement. He posted a 2.91 ERA last August, allowing hitters to bat .248 with a .679 OPS. Skenes finished strong with a .203 batting average-against, 1.31 ERA and 0.92 WHP in September.
Davis said Skenes has an option to attack any hitter’s weakness and learned to become more comfortable using certain offerings to expose any dependencies on bat paths or pitch preferences.
“He finds ways,” Davis said. “I think it’ll be more consistent types of attacks on certain hitters. He really started to play with a couple different options in the middle of the year and then got more comfortable with them towards the end. He finished really strong.”
Now, Skenes wants to start strong. He threw a live batting practice Monday, facing baseball’s top prospect, 19-year-old shortstop Konnor Griffin, in a matchup of the franchise’s current and future superstars.
“I really just want to come out of the gate healthy and feeling good, throwing strikes,” Skenes said, “and then kind of go from there.”
Per Statcast, Skenes led the majors in pitching run value, ranked in the 99th percentile in fastball run value and the 98th in offspeed run value. His strikeout rate (29.5%) and walk rate (5.7%) were exceptional. He also rated in the red — which is above average — in expected ERA, barrel percentage (5.8%), whiff rate (30.1%) and fastball velocity (98.1 mph).
Despite facing 219 more batters in 54 2/3 more innings over nine more starts than his rookie season, Skenes produced nearly identical numbers. His 0.95 WHIP remained the same, while his ERA (1.97) and batting average-against (.199) increased by only a hundredth of a point. His strikeouts per nine innings dipped from 11.5 to 10.4 but so did his walks per nine, from 2.17 to 2.01.
Skenes might be boring, but he’s also incredibly efficient.
“He’s always striving to be better. He doesn’t want to be good. He wants to be great,” Kelly said. “When you say he wants to be great, the personal stuff is secondary. Paul Skenes wants to win, and that’s what drives him every single day. He wants to go out and win and he wants to be great.
“When you talk about him as a competitor, it’s hard to say what can push him even further. Nobody is going to push Paul Skenes as hard as he pushes himself. And he works like that every single day. Drives the pitching staff to work like that and the whole club in general.”
