Impact of World Baseball Classic on Paul Skenes’ Performance

The World Baseball Classic, a brief event spanning a couple of weeks, left a lasting impression on the baseball season. Pittsburgh Pirates’ ace, Paul Skenes, experienced a notable decline in his performance this year. After achieving ERAs of 1.97 and 1.96 over the last two seasons, his ERA now sits at 3.91. Several factors contributed to this, with the World Baseball Classic playing a role.

Paul Skenes acknowledged the influence of the Classic on his form. “There are a lot of other factors, so I don’t want to put everything on that,” he explained to the Post-Gazette. “But I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit.” This event disrupted his usual pitch preparation, leading to challenges in command and velocity.

“Usually, that time of year, you’re kind of ramping up and it’s a little bit slow. You can kind of get onto the slope and find your body,” Skenes remarked about the preseason period. “One live (batting practice), you’re topping at 97 (mph), and then the next you’re 98, 99. And that wasn’t the case this year. … Looking back, I don’t think that really helped.”

Early in the season, Skenes still managed to perform well, albeit with a reduced fastball speed. His fastball average fell to 96.8 mph, down from the 98.8 mph in his rookie year and 98.1 mph last season. Despite attempting mechanical adjustments to regain velocity, success eluded him.

“Unfortunately, it’s probably going to take an offseason to get it back,” Skenes admitted. The 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner emphasized that the World Baseball Classic was not the sole reason for his struggles, but it was significant. “It definitely affected the year,” he shared, mentioning that other pitchers experienced similar impacts.

The Pirates anticipate that Skenes will rebound with a strong offseason, aiming for a 2027 comeback to help the team in their postseason ambitions, pending any season complications from an upcoming lockout.