Last offseason, Pirates ace Paul Skenes implored management to find some bats.
This offseason, it might be Pirates hitters imploring management to find some arms.
And so it goes with our Pittsburgh Pirates. Patch one tire, another one pops. That’s how you go decades without a playoff series win, and that’s how you keep sinking under .500 even with a top-five offense and what most figured would be a dynamic rotation anchored by the defending NL Cy Young winner.
The bullpen blew up a long time ago. The rotation is teetering. It has tumbled to 12th in the majors in ERA after a horrendous June.
Mitch Keller had a 6.23 ERA in June. Braxton Ashcraft slipped to near five. Jared Jones — who is slated to take the mound Thursday in Philadelphia — and Bubba Chandler are still trying to find their way; their combined June ERA was around 9.0.
It feels like most of the pitchers around here — bullpen included, obviously — have gotten worse, which makes you wonder if firing pitching coach Oscar Marin and hiring Bill “Mosey” Murphy was a good idea. If Murphy walked any slower to the mound, he’d be arrested for loitering.
But the story is Skenes. His season has gone from excellent to mildly concerning to worrisome to downright alarming. That was the word broadcaster Greg Brown used early in the game Wednesday night in Philly, when Skenes’ fastball velocity dipped to 95 mph.
Is he injured?
Is he suffering from arm fatigue?
Those are the kinds of questions one asks when a normally precise flamethrower is spraying the ball over the place and losing velocity.
The Phillies were smashing balls like it was batting practice. Skenes went full Yohan Ramirez in terms of wildness. I half-expected him to throw a ball out of the stadium. Analyst John Wehner repeatedly pointed out how the spin was missing on Skenes’ pitches.
The sweeper wasn’t sweeping. The slider wasn’t sliding. The splinker long ago stopped splinking. And the fastball has lost two miles per hour since Skenes’ rookie year.
We’ve been over that — and we’re assuming it was a choice because that is what Skenes says. He apparently decided he didn’t want to throw as hard as he used to, perhaps in an attempt to become more efficient (how is that working out?), perhaps in an attempt to preserve his arm.
I can’t be the only one baffled as to why a pitcher who throws 101 mph would never, ever use that weapon again (Skenes hasn’t thrown a single pitch at 100 mph this season and almost never hits 99), but that is clearly the case.
Meanwhile, the “There’s Nothing Wrong With Skenes” crowd can politely show themselves out. There’s something wrong with Skenes. The Pirates have not won any of his past nine starts, over which time his ERA is an unthinkable 5.36.
I don’t want to hear about how his defense let him down Wednesday, either, even if there were a few malfunctions. There were also a couple of great catches in the outfield, including one where Jake Mangum appeared to rob a two-run homer. Skenes earned what he got, which was six hits and seven earned runs in four innings, raising his ERA to 3.62 in a 10-6 loss.
It marked the second straight Skenes start where the bullpen got up in the second inning.
One issue I keep wondering about is the World Baseball Classic. About a month ago, general manager Ben Cherington brought it up unsolicited when speaking with reporters about Skenes’ struggles, in terms of the altered offseason routine.
I wondered at the time how the WBC might impact Skenes or any pitcher, to have to ramp up to playoff-level intensity in March. Is that manifesting now?
Who knows?
I just know this: Something is wrong, and if Skenes isn’t going to be great again, the Pirates are cooked.