Tim Benz: If the Pirates 'haven't figured out yet' how to promote Paul Skenes, don't make it harder than it needs to be

At 17-19, not much has gone right for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2024.

At least not since that 11-5 start.

At least not before they got back-to-back series on the schedule against the lousy Los Angeles Angels after facing the even worse Colorado Rockies.

The hitting has been bad for most of the past month. The bullpen hasn’t been as good as hoped. And entering Monday’s games, their 22 errors were tied for third most in the National League.

Surprisingly, though, one element of the team that has been better than expected has been the starting pitching. As of Monday night, the starting staff’s 3.50 ERA was fourth best in the National League, its 1.15 WHIP was third best, and the batting average against of .234 was fifth.

Not bad given the low expectation for what the rotation was supposed to look like until first-round pick Paul Skenes got called up from the minor leagues.

Which, as all Pirates fans are acutely aware, still has yet to happen.

It’s even better considering that Mitch Keller’s performance — until Monday night’s 4-1 complete-game gem to beat Los Angeles — hadn’t been up to snuff this spring.

Even with Monday’s excellent start, Keller’s ERA is still at 4.41. Fortunately, his struggles have been offset by:

• Jared Jones being among the league leaders in strikeouts

• Quinn Priester throwing two decent starts since his recall

• Marco Gonzales tossing two of three quality starts before his injury

• Martin Perez’s 2.86 ERA through April

• Bailey Falter posting a 2.89 during five April starts

I saw almost none of that coming.

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Let’s not allow any of those results to cloud or confuse what’s going on with Skenes, though. He should be called up at any time now. Frankly, that probably should’ve happened already.

Whether it’s been monitoring service time, pitch counts, innings logs, or “boxes to check” for pitching on four days’ rest, the Pirates have put their No. 1 overall pick through a very regimented and calculated plan before getting to the big leagues.

Here’s to hoping a little unexpected success from some of his peers doesn’t complicate that even more.

“It’s challenging. You’re talking about a couple of different things,” manager Derek Shelton said Monday of the timing to promote Skenes. “No. 1, you’re talking about a difference in the ball. No. 2, you’re talking about a whole different routine in terms of scheduling. Because you do it once a week (in college), you have a ton of time to recover. You can throw multiple bullpens if you want. You can throw one bullpen if you want. It’s so much different (than MLB).”

Now, if the Pirates are looking for a crack in the rotation to slot in Skenes, that could delay things even more. But that’s not something the Pirates should concern themselves with at this point. If Falter has to get moved out of the rotation, move Falter out of the rotation. If Priester has to go back down to Triple-A, send Priester back down and get Skenes up to Pittsburgh when he is forecasted to come up.

Skenes’ most recent outing in Indianapolis on Sunday was less than stellar — two earned runs on three hits (including a homer) and two walks with a season-low four strikeouts in 4⅓ innings. But his ERA in seven starts is still 0.99 and he has 45 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings pitched.

At this point, Shelton is still making it sound as if Skenes is going to start for Indy at least one more time.

“He’s scheduled to pitch in Indy this week,” Shelton said. “I think with him, there was speculation he was going to pitch in this series (against the Angels), or he was going to pitch (Sunday’s win over Colorado). I think when you have someone that’s talented like he is, there’s always going to be speculation and people are always going to have it figured out. Well, we haven’t figured it out yet.”

One suggestion that has been made is that the Pirates go to a six-man rotation. That seems counterintuitive to me since so much of the planning for Skenes in the first place has been done with an eye toward getting him ready for four days’ rest at a time, not five.

“You’re speculating on when he’s going to be here and how we’re going to do that. Until we get to that point, then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We have not talked about any form or fashion yet,” Shelton said.

Well, there are plenty of bridges in Pittsburgh. And last time I checked, one or two of them aren’t even under construction for a change. Maybe Skenes can drive over one of them on his way to PNC Park from Indianapolis sooner, not later.

Because with all due respect to the Bailey Falters, Quinn Priesters and Martin Perezes of the world, keeping the express lane open for Skenes to get here is of greatest importance.

Now it’s just a matter of how quickly the Pirates are willing to drive in it.