Paul Skenes pitched yet another gem in the Pittsburgh Pirates' win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, going six innings and allowing just three hits and two earned runs with nine strikeouts. He now has a 1.65 ERA and 0.88 WHIP through 16 starts, firmly in pole position for the NL Cy Young award.
That said, Skenes did not get the W on Thursday. He left the game with Pittsburgh in the lead, 4-2, but the Pirates bullpen quickly coughed it up with two Detroit runs in the seventh frame. That led to extra innings. Pittsburgh poured on four runs in the 10th and eventually took the win, but this will go down as a win for David Bednar. Not Skenes, whose season record sits at 4-6 despite his absurd dominance.
It's hard to overstate how dire the Pirates offense has been all season. It stands out in especially harsh light when Skenes is throwing bullets, only for the lineup and the relievers to let him down, almost without fail. He made baseball history on Thursday, becoming the first MLB pitcher ever to record 275-plus strikeouts with a sub-2.00 ERA through his first 39 career starts. And he didn't even get the win. That feels like the perfect microcosm for Skenes' — and Pittsburgh's — futility right now.
Only one pitcher in @MLB history has recorded 275+ strikeouts with a sub-2.00 ERA through his first 39 career games:
— Mathew Brownstein (@MBrownstein89) June 20, 2025
Paul Skenes https://t.co/IAmH9ZCtcs
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Paul Skenes makes MLB history and doesn't even get the win thanks to Pirates bullpen
This has been an ongoing theme throughout Skenes' career, and especially this season. The Pirates are 16 games below .500 with zero path to contention. Skenes is the best pound-for-pound pitcher in baseball right now, and his talent is completely wasted on a team with scant hopes of contending for a postseason spot any time soon, much less a World Series.
There's a reason we get all this Skenes trade speculation. There's no way Pittsburgh trades its primary cash cow — the one guy who can get fans out to the ballpark once every fifth game. Skenes is a marketing gold mine, a financial lightning rod, a true shining star atop the depth chart. That alone is worth it for Bob Nutting, whose motivations are primarily financial. He doesn't really care about winning games.
But, if the Pirates continue to toil in mediocrity, we all know damn well that Skenes will leave in free agency once he's able. Pittsburgh does not wield the capital necessary to make a competitive offer. Any hopes of an early extension went out the window when Skenes was starting the All-Star game as a rookie. He's already one of the most valuable single players in the sport. He won't take pennies on the dollar to stick with a team that won't commit to winning with him in the clubhouse.
The entire organization deserves blame. The offense needs to pick it up. The bullpen can't keep bleeding runs like this. Ben Cherington and the front office can't keep getting away with this. Derek Shelton took the fall earlier this season, but the results have not meaningfully changed since his departure. The Pirates are an exercise in futility. Skenes' picture is probably next to the word in the dictionary. It's a real shame.