The Pittsburgh Pirates have shifted Paul Skenes from Sunday to Wednesday to give him extra recovery time, manager Don Kelly confirmed after Saturday’s game. There’s no reported injury — but the move comes at the lowest point of Skenes’ season, and the numbers make it easy to understand why Pittsburgh is being cautious.
What Don Kelly Said
The announcement came on August 15: Skenes will not start Sunday’s series finale against the Boston Red Sox at PNC Park. Lake Bachar will take the ball instead, with Pittsburgh running a bullpen day. Skenes is expected to start Wednesday, presumably against the Detroit Tigers.
Kelly was blunt — this has nothing to do with an injury. He pointed to accumulated fatigue and opposing hitters starting to make adjustments against the young right-hander. Skenes, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said he understood the decision even if he would have preferred to keep his turn.
Why His Last Start Set Off Alarms
The August 11 start in Miami was the trigger. Skenes lasted just five innings on 65 pitches — his shortest outing of the season outside of a rain-shortened April game — and the Pirates lost 2-0 to the Marlins.
Statcast told a concerning story. His four-seam fastball averaged 95.7 mph, down 1.2 mph from his season average of 96.8 mph and well below the 98.2 mph he averaged in 2025. He also allowed eight hard-hit balls — contact at 95 mph or harder — with an average exit velocity of exactly 100.0 mph against his fastball. Hitters are squaring him up.
The Full 2026 Picture
On the season, Skenes is 9-11 with a 3.88 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and 166 strikeouts in 134.2 innings over 25 starts. Those are solid numbers for most pitchers. For the guy who won the Cy Young in 2025 with a 1.97 ERA and 0.948 WHIP, they feel like a step back — and his ERA since June 20 sits at 5.47 over 52.2 innings.
Is It Skenes, or Is It the Team Around Him?
The velocity dip and the hard contact are real concerns, but there’s important context: Skenes’ xERA of 3.00 and SIERA of 3.07 — metrics that estimate expected runs allowed based on contact quality — sit nearly a full run below his actual ERA. That gap suggests a chunk of the damage isn’t on him.
Pittsburgh’s defense backs that up. The Pirates fell from 7th in Outs Above Average in 2025 (OAA +18) all the way to 23rd in 2026 (OAA -14). In Defensive Runs Saved, the drop was even steeper: from +32 to -1. The team behind him simply isn’t converting the outs it used to.
Where Pittsburgh Stands
At 58-64 and six games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, the Pirates aren’t in a must-win situation this week. Sliding Skenes four days to get him fresher makes sense on paper. The real question is whether four extra days of rest can get those missing 2 mph back on his fastball.
