Skenes: Pirates going to win 'different way' than Dodgers, Yankees
Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes believes his team is destined for success because the front office listens to what the players want.
"Obviously, being drafted No. 1 overall was a huge honor, and since then, I've had a fair amount of visibility and conversations with (chairman) Bob Nutting, (general manager) Ben Cherington, and other team officials," Skenes told Jim Lachimia of MLB.com. "And they listen. I was the No. 1 pick, who cares? Whatever. I was still a rookie last year, but they were listening. And they're listening to guys like Mitch Keller, Bryan Reynolds, and Ke'Bryan Hayes, too.
"They're receptive. They listen to what we think we need to do to win. Mr. Nutting is very approachable. He's willing to listen because he wants to win, which is good because that's not the picture that a lot of people paint of him."
He added: "The only difference is we're going to win in a little bit (of a) different way than the (Los Angeles) Dodgers and the (New York) Yankees. But we're going to win."
The Pirates finished the 2024 season with baseball's second-lowest payroll at over $84 million. The Yankees had the second-highest total with over $308 million, while the Dodgers finished sixth at over $240 million thanks to several deferrals by star players. Los Angeles defeated New York in the World Series.
Pittsburgh finished last in the NL Central with 76 wins en route to missing the playoffs for a ninth straight year. The club was in the NL wild-card hunt before going 8-19 in August, which included a 10-game losing streak.
"Yeah, the last couple months of the season - especially that stretch in August - left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths," the 22-year-old right-hander said. "We were in it up until then and then had a bunch of things not go our way.
"My hope is, we got that out of our system, and we're going to have more self-awareness in terms of how we're going to be able to win moving forward. I know the talent here is going to get better."
Skenes won NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in NL Cy Young voting after posting a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 170 strikeouts over 133 innings (23 starts) after making his MLB debut in mid-May.