Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes recently did an interview with MLB.com's Alex Stumpf. In this interview, Skenes said that the Pirates owe it to the city to win games. It seems as though he was calling for reinforcements, likely on offense, to provide help around the team's loaded pitching staff.
“I think we owe something to the city,” Skenes said. “We owe a lot to the city. It’s our job to go out and win for the city because this is bigger than all of us. There’s a reason why Cutch keeps coming back, and specifically to Pittsburgh. There’s something about this city. We saw it last summer. We’ve seen it in the videos of the Wild Card Game. I’m tired of watching them because it was a Wild Card Series. The bar needs to be set pretty high. Not taking anything from those guys. The fact that that’s a golden era of recent Pirates baseball, that needs to change. We owe it to the city.”
On Tuesday, April 1, the Pirates announced they were bringing in one reinforcement for Skenes and the big-league club, but it's not the help that he and the team needed the most.
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Pirates promote No. 3 prospect Thomas Harrington for big league debut
On Tuesday, the Pirates announced that No. 3 prospect, pitcher Thomas Harrington, was being called up to the big leagues for his MLB debut. The 23-year-old righty was excellent last season as he pitched to the tune of a sub-3.00 ERA across three levels of the minor leagues. He has a developed arsenal with excellent command.
The Pirates faithful likely expected top prospect Bubba Chandler to be the first prospect called up this season, but Harrington gets the call before Chandler.
As exciting as this is for Skenes and the city, it's not the help that everybody has been calling for. Pittsburgh has a solid rotation with Skenes at the top of it. When Jared Jones returns, they'll be even more deadly. But they need to add offense, and they need to do it in a big way.
Still, the Pirates' fanbase should be pretty ecstatic with Harrington's promotion. The righty is going to be a piece of the rotation, alongside Skenes, Jones, and Chandler, for years to come. Tonight is just the tip of the iceberg for the talented right hander.