Why Paul Skenes blames the World Baseball Classic for decreased velocity as Pirates ace wraps up down season

Skenes currently has a 3.91 ERA on the season, which qualifies as a bad year for the reigning Cy Young winner Despite an active offseason and a busy trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Pirates were officially eliminated from postseason contention this past weekend. At 79-77, they have a chance to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2018, but that is the smallest of consolations. The Pirates made moves intending to contend this year, but missed the postseason. One reason — maybe the biggest reason, but not the only reason — that the Pirates missed the postseason is a down year by reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes.

A down year that included some outright bad stretches. Skenes has a 3.91 ERA in 168 innings this season, but from May 17 to July 31, he had a 14-start stretch with a 5.18 ERA. Pittsburgh went 3-11 in those 14 games. Over the weekend, Skenes acknowledged that the World Baseball Classic may have contributed to his fluctuating velocity and down year because it interrupted his usual spring training buildup. "There are a lot of other factors, so I don't want to put everything on that, but I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit," Skenes told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Usually that time of