{"id":567999,"date":"2026-02-12T10:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567999\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:57:41","slug":"pirates-manager-reveals-how-paul-skenes-can-become-even-more-dominant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567999\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Manager Reveals How Paul Skenes Can Become Even More Dominant"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to be better than Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes has been over his first two Major League seasons. His career is already off to one of the greatest starts in MLB history with an NL Rookie of the Year award, an NL Cy Young award<\/a> and back-to-back seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Skenes doesn\u2019t have much room for improvement, but his manager, Don Kelly, believes he has the work ethic to keep getting better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the thing that stands out with Paul is his consistency, the way that he approaches every single day,\u201d Kelly told the media<\/a> on the Pirates\u2019 first day of spring training. \u201cHe\u2019s always striving to get better. He doesn\u2019t want to be good, he wants to be great\u2026The personal stuff is secondary. Paul Skenes wants to win, and that\u2019s what drives him every single day\u2026Nobody\u2019s gonna push Paul Skenes harder than he pushes himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was evident last year, when Skenes solidified himself as arguably the best pitcher in baseball<\/a> by leading the Major Leagues in ERA and FIP. Many players regress after a strong rookie season as the league adjusts to them, but Skenes made himself even better.<\/p>\n

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Can he do that again this year? Kelly believes anything\u2019s possible when it comes to his ace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Paul Skenes could do anything on the pitcher\u2019s mound\u2026I\u2019m excited to see what he\u2019s gonna be able to do throughout his career,\u201d Kelly added. \u201cI think it\u2019s that daily grind, that daily work ethic that is instilled in him that\u2019s going to allow him to be the best\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The sky is the limit for Skenes, who\u2019s already laying the foundation for a Hall of Fame career at 23 years old. This season could see him pitch deeper into games and throw more innings now that he has two MLB seasons under his belt, especially if Pittsburgh competes for a playoff spot<\/a> as expected.<\/p>\n

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More Pirates: 2026 Pirates Get Exciting Projection For Best Season In Years<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to be better than Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes has been over his first two Major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,6452,4,877,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-567999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-don-kelly","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-paul-skenes","12":"tag-pirates","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116057305574645799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}