It took 10 months for Paul Skenes to go from college baseball sensation to MLB pitcher. The Pirates are set to call up Paul Skenes for his first MLB start on May 11 against the Cubs, culminating an incredible run up the ladder for an arm who’s arguably the best pitching prospect in nearly 15 years.

A Look at Skenes

Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes was a dominant two-way talent at Air Force before transferring to LSU for the 2023 season. While Skenes was expected to be a potential first-round pick heading into the campaign, Skenes’ dominance at Baton Rouge helped him soar up draft boards.

Skenes broke Ben McDonald‘s SEC record for most strikeouts in a single season by a pitcher in the conference, when he struck out 209 batters over 122.2 IP in a season where LSU won the 2023 College World Series. That campaign pushed him past Wyatt Langford and LSU teammate Dylan Crews to become the top pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.

Since going pro, Skenes has been limited from an innings standpoint. Yet, he’s been dominant nonetheless. Skenes struck out 45 batters over 27.1 IP with Indianapolis (AAA) this season and opposing hitters batted just .175 against him in Triple-A.

Arguably the best college pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg, Skenes has two fastballs, a four-seamer, and a two-seamer, with the former potentially being a plus-plus pitch at the MLB level. In college, Skenes regularly hit triple digits with it but only operated in the high 90s when he started on short rest in the College World Series.

Skenes sat in the 98-100 MPH range with his four-seamer in Triple-A per Statcast, and with its flat approach angle and lower release point, it could be a very dominant pitch if he can command it up in the zone consistently in the Majors.

Skenes threw his four-seamer and sinker/splitter roughly 58% of the time among recorded Triple-A pitches. But on top of those weapons, he’ll also break out a changeup, along with a plus slider that he leaned on significantly more in college as compared to the change and profiles as his second-best pitch.

The 21-year-old dominated everywhere he’s been to this point. Per the Pirates, Skenes will be called up on May 11 to face the Cubs.

Analysis

While it might have been obvious just from looking at his Triple-A numbers, the reality was that Skenes’ stuff was MLB-ready when he was drafted.

But after a short few months of adjusting to pro life and working within a different schedule, Skenes will now join an electric rotation that includes fellow rookie phenom Jared Jones, who entered play on May 8 third in the National League in strikeouts (52), Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, and Quinn Priester.

Keller, Priester, Jones, and Skenes could form what could be a very formidable rotation for years to come, with Bubba Chandler and Anthony Solometo also waiting in the wings. It’s not easy to develop pitching, simply because so much can go wrong. However, the Pirates appear to have struck gold — no pun intended — to this point.

Fantasy Outlook

Skenes is likely not available in most mixed leagues. The Pirates right-hander is owned in 74% of Yahoo! leagues, not shocking given his prospect pedigree and MLB readiness.

With elite stuff, Skenes has ace potential in fantasy over the coming years. However, it’ll be interesting to see how many win opportunities he gets, given how the Pirates have been very protective of his workload

Skenes has only thrown five or more innings in a start once this season.