A legendary ex-pitcher had a warning for Paul Skenes, arguing that the Pittsburgh Pirates ace needs to assert himself in order to achieve his full potential.
In an interview with Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson said he was impressed by what Skenes has been able to do in his career so far. He also said, however, that he told Skenes that in order to reach his full potential, he had to assert to the team that he could do more than he has been allowed to do thus far with regard to his workload.
Johnson saw Skenes pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks, a game in which Skenes was pulled after 100 pitches in 5.1 innings. The Pirates ace gave up two earned runs in that outing, but was let down by the Pirates’ bullpen.
“If he could’ve gone another inning, he might’ve gotten that win, because as soon as he came out, the next guy gave up three runs,” Johnson said. “And that’s what I told him, when I met him. ‘The organization, Paul, is going to dictate what you are gonna do and if you wanna have a real career, if you become the pitcher that everybody thinks you’re going to be, you will have a lot of say in what you want to do, whereas a lot of pitchers don’t have that say, but you will.’
“He’s definitely special, but in today’s game, he’s going to be held back for the rest of this year and maybe next year,” Johnson added. “But if you want to be the pitcher that you’re capable of being, you need to step up and show people what you’re capable of doing and voice your opinion, because going five or six innings you’re not going to win very many ballgames in today’s game. You’re gonna have to go seven or eight innings and you’re not going to hurt yourself because the game has been around for 150 years and people went 7-8 innings all the time and they threw 115-135 pitches. You just have to mold your body and your body needs to become accustomed to that kind of workload. That’s all it is.”
That may be easier said than done for Skenes, as the Pirates are very eager to avoid overworking the young star. Johnson’s point is that plenty of pitchers have thrown a lot of innings at a high level without getting seriously hurt, and he does not see why Skenes should be any different.
The Pirates are still taking an extremely conservative approach to Skenes’ workload. Maybe that changes in year two, but Johnson is right that Skenes might have to really assert himself at some point to reach his full potential.
