Connect with us

Published

1 year ago

on

  • Associated Press

May 10, 2024, 06:37 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes thought he was ready for the majors months ago.

Turns out, life doesn’t work like that. Or at least the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t want it to work like that for perhaps the best pitching prospect in a generation.

“You can’t just show up in spring training and throw seven innings, even if I feel like I can,” Skenes said.

Instead, the Pirates opted to bring the top overall pick in last year’s draft along slowly in hopes of protecting the 21-year-old’s right arm that regularly delivers fastballs that reach triple digits. The buildup at Triple-A Indianapolis was gradual and deliberate.

Skenes understood the assignment. He embraced it as best he could across seven almost uniformly dominant starts in which he posted a 0.99 ERA, doing his best to push the wondering about when “the call” would come out of his mind.

It worked. Maybe too well.

Skenes was actually napping Wednesday when manager Miguel Perez tried to break the news Skenes was going to Pittsburgh. Perez, who’s notoriously creative in finding ways to let his players know they’re moving up, opted to take a more direct approach with Skenes. Fitting for a franchise eager for the future to arrive as fast as possible.

“He says, ‘Are you really going to make me look for another pitcher on Saturday?'” Skenes said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, am I?’ He says, ‘Yeah, you are. You’re going to The Show.'”

The conversation lasted two minutes. Less than 48 sometimes frantic hours later, Skenes walked into a clubhouse at PNC Park on Friday that had a stall featuring his name and the number “30.”

Skenes will make his first major league start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs in perhaps the most anticipated pitching debut since former Washington star Stephen Strasburg struck out 14 Pirates in 2009. Skenes, who turned 7 that night, has no recollection of it.

Then again, life has come at him so fast of late that keeping track can be difficult.

Two years ago, he was a somewhat anonymous transfer from Air Force to LSU. Now, he’s considered a franchise cornerstone for a club that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1979.

It can be a lot to take in.

“Two years ago feels really long ago and really short ago at the same time, if that makes sense,” he said. “In some ways, it flew by. In some ways, it was really long.”

The buzz around the city and on social media since the announcement of Skenes’ promotion has been palpable. He’s trying to tune it out. Emphasis on “trying,” considering his girlfriend is LSU gymnast and prominent social media influencer Livvy Dunne, who joined Skenes for his first trip to Pittsburgh as a big leaguer.

“I do my best to not see any of it, but it’s unavoidable at the same time,” he said. “You’re going to have to see some of it.”

While Skenes — who never threw more than 75 pitches in any of his starts at Indianapolis — considers his buildup “finished,” it’s unlikely he’s going to be allowed to go much beyond that number against the Cubs.

Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton stressed that “it was time” for Skenes to join the Pirates because “he had checked all the boxes that we felt he needed to do in the minor leagues and he checked them very quickly.”

Just not quickly enough for Pittsburgh to let Skenes think about reaching the 100-pitch mark, a number he hit in 12 of his 19 starts last year at LSU.

“There’s still going to be a process as we move forward,” Shelton said.

It’s a process Skenes is putting his trust in, thanks in part to the way the Pirates have handled rookie right-hander Jared Jones.

Jones, 22, made the team out of spring training and entered Friday’s start against the Cubs with a 2.63 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 41 innings. Pittsburgh has used kid gloves with Jones at times, though he also threw a career-high 96 pitches over seven brilliant innings against Colorado last weekend.

“It’s also a little bit easier to know that I’m not the only one that’s going through [a buildup],” Skenes said. “It is frustrating to go out there and throw three innings [even though] I knew I was going to throw three innings. I knew that it was setting me up to be able to throw six, seven, eight innings in September, October this year.”

The use of “October” was intentional. The Pirates didn’t draft Skenes and lavish him with a record $9.2 million signing bonus just to sell tickets (though that will almost certainly happen). They see a player who can potentially help take the franchise places it hasn’t been in decades.

Pittsburgh entered the weekend in a 6-16 funk following an 11-5 start. While the offense has struggled, a starting rotation considered a question mark when the season began looks like it could be a strength thanks to Jones’ emergence, the steady hand of Martin Perez and Skenes’ arrival.

“I would definitely say we’re close,” Skenes said. “I think being around the team in spring training and watching the club over the past month or so, we’re close. I think there is a lot to look forward to.”

Skenes isn’t afraid of the challenge that awaits. Still, he’s going to try to breathe in a moment he long dreamed of but tried to put out of his mind until it finally happened.

“I definitely want to take a minute and realize how cool it is.”

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Fresh Prince of the Fall Classic: A Will Smith wins World Series for sixth-straight year

Published

1 hour ago

on

November 3, 2025

By

Fresh Prince of the Fall Classic: A Will Smith wins World Series for sixth-straight year

Forget advanced analytics, draft capital and payroll flexibility — apparently, a team needs just Will Smith to win the World Series.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games on Saturday night, a team with a player named Will Smith on their active roster has won the Fall Classic six years in a row.

The Dodgers accomplished the feat in 2020 and 2024 with catcher Will Smith, while the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers swapped reliever Will Smith among them from 2021-23.

What’s even odder about this stat is that Will Smith doesn’t even need to dominate in the World Series to win. While Will Smith the pitcher has put up a respectable 3.38 ERA in his three World Series, Will Smith the catcher has a batting average of .194 with 14 hits, four homers, 10 RBIs and nine runs scored in 80 career Fall Classic plate appearances.

But those numbers don’t tell the full tale of the latter’s impact.

On Saturday night, Smith hit the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all World Series game in MLB history. It was his fourth career go-ahead homer in the postseason, tying Javy López and Gene Tenace for the second most by a catcher all time, behind only Johnny Bench with five. He also became the first catcher to homer in a Game 7 of the World Series since David Ross did it in 2016, and only the sixth catcher ever to do it. The ball he hit in the 11th inning traveled 366 feet — the exact same distance as Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement‘s flyout with bases loaded that ended the ninth.

For good measure, the Dodgers clinched their back-to-back championship by turning a game-ending double play, making them just the third team ever to clinch the World Series in that fashion.

While Will Smith the catcher is locked up on the Dodgers for a while, Will Smith the pitcher last signed a one-year $5 million contract with the Kansas City Royals in December 2023 and is a free agent.

ESPN Research contributed to this story.

Continue Reading

Sports

Triple threat: Dodgers favored to win title in ’26

Published

1 hour ago

on

November 3, 2025

By

Triple threat: Dodgers favored to win title in '26

With their second straight World Series title and third championship in six seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers have built a dynasty that seemingly can’t be stopped. According to bookmakers, it may not.

The Dodgers opened as the consensus favorite to win another World Series in 2026, showing +375 odds at ESPN BET. Next come the New York Yankees at a relatively distant +700 before another somewhat significant drop to the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies at +1200.

On paper, sportsbooks see a Dodgers core that is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of MLB. DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello said the unique talent of the team’s lineup, even at the bottom, and an impeccable pitching staff keep Los Angeles in the outright-favorite conversation every season.

“Every year, it seems like we’ve been putting up the Dodgers as the favorite and we’ve been putting up just about the same price, like somewhere between +350 and +450,” Avello told ESPN. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be the favorite every year as long as they’re going to continue to keep putting a team like this out there.”

The World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays check in with +2000 odds to win it all in 2026, tied with the Chicago Cubs for 11th on ESPN BET’s board. It’s a significant improvement from their +6000 odds entering the 2025 campaign, which would have made them the longest preseason underdog to win a World Series since 2003 had they pulled it off against the Dodgers.

With Toronto leading 4-2 in the top of the eighth inning in Saturday night’s epic Game 7, Los Angeles was +750 on the live money line at ESPN BET. Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who locked up the championship in the 11th inning after several stellar starting performances, was awarded World Series MVP after entering the series as a +3500 underdog to do so.

“The Dodgers were the most bet team to win the World Series and many bettors were happy to see the team win back-to-back championships,” BetMGM senior trader Matthew Rasp said in an email release. “LA opened as favorites to three-peat and we expect the Dodgers to be heavily supported by bettors once again.”

DraftKings, which opened its 2026 World Series market in recent weeks, said the Dodgers already are garnering 40% of the wagers and 25% of the handle to win another championship; the Blue Jays are second in the book’s rankings with 12% of bets and 22% of money.

Los Angeles was extremely well-supported by the betting public throughout the 2025 season: Going into the divisional round, ESPN BET said it had three times as many bets on the Dodgers to win the World Series than any other team.

At the bottom of the 2026 World Series odds board lie the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies, both sporting astounding 500-1 odds. Both teams have become popular fade targets for bettors throughout recent seasons.

Continue Reading

Sports

Cubs earn major-league-high 3 Gold Glove awards

Published

1 hour ago

on

November 3, 2025

By

Cubs earn major-league-high 3 Gold Glove awards

  • Associated Press

Nov 2, 2025, 10:10 PM ET

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs had a major-league-high three Gold Glove winners this year, with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner taking home baseball’s most famous fielding honor.

It was the first Gold Glove for Crow-Armstrong, part of a breakout season for the All-Star center fielder. Happ won for the fourth consecutive year in left field, and it was the second Gold Glove for Hoerner at second base.

“Four straight’s pretty special,” Happ said. “We had an unbelievable defensive team this year. Just all around, I think we built off each other and kind of fed off each other and the energy, and it was a real source of pride amongst the group.”

Hoerner also won in 2023. He was slowed at the beginning of this season as he made his way back from right flexor tendon surgery on Oct. 11, 2024.

“To have an injury that directly impacts your defense and still win this award, yeah, it feels really good,” Hoerner said.

Kansas City, Boston and San Francisco each had two winners. Eight players earned the award for the first time, St. Louis-based Rawlings announced Sunday.

Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia of the Royals became the first shortstop-third baseman teammates to win in the same season since J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado for the Orioles in 2013. It was Witt’s second straight Gold Glove at shortstop.

Patrick Bailey and Logan Webb of the Giants are the first battery from the same team to win a Gold Glove in the same season since Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals in 2013. It was Bailey’s second straight win at catcher.

The Red Sox winners were right fielder Wilyer Abreu and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Abreu, 26, also won last year, and Rafaela, 25, earned the award for the first time.

New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried and Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan joined Happ as four-time winners. Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson earned his third Gold Glove.

Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler, Texas second baseman Marcus Semien, Houston utilityman Mauricio Dubón and first baseman Ty France rounded out the AL winners. France was traded from Minnesota to Toronto on July 31.

San Diego right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., St. Louis shortstop Masyn Winn, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and Miami utilityman Javier Sanoja also won in the NL. It’s the second Gold Glove for Tatis and Hayes, who was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on July 30.

Semien earned a $100,000 bonus for winning the honor. Kwan and Witt each got $50,000, and Hayes earned a $25,000 bonus.

Voting was conducted among managers and up to six coaches from each team, who can’t select players on their own club. Since 2013, voting has been factored with a Society for American Baseball Research defensive index, which comprises about 25% of the total.

The utility category is based on a SABR formula and additional defensive statistics.

Continue Reading

Trending