On March 26, Paul Skenes walked off the mound at PNC Park after two-thirds of an inning, five earned runs, and 37 pitches — the shortest season debut by a reigning Cy Young winner whose first appearance was a start. It was the kind of outing that sends a fanbase spiraling into the usual Pittsburgh doom loop. The franchise ace, the one guy who was supposed to be different, had just gotten lit up by the Mets on Opening Day. Pirates fans have seen this movie. They know how it ends. Except this time, it didn’t.
From Opening Day Disaster to Ace-Level Dominance
What Skenes did over his next five starts ranks among the best sustained stretches of pitching in baseball this season. A 4-0 record, a 0.95 ERA, a 0.53 WHIP, 29 strikeouts against 5 walks across 28.1 innings. Opposing hitters batted .106 against him. That is not a hot week — that is a pitcher who processed one disastrous start, made his adjustments, and came back humming. “It’s a work in progress, still, but it’s nice to give some volume and be out there for more than two-thirds of an inning,” he said after his April 1 bounce-back against Cincinnati, which sounds understated until you realize the guy he was comparing himself to was the version from six days earlier.
The near-perfect game against Milwaukee on April 24 was the punctuation mark. Skenes retired the first 20 batters he faced before Jake Bauers singled with two outs in the seventh — per Yardbarker, he was characteristically unbothered afterward, noting that plenty of pitchers have gone six perfect innings. Seven innings, one hit, zero runs, seven strikeouts. The full 2026 season line — Opening Day catastrophe included — sits at 4-1 with a 2.48 ERA. He’s the unanimous 2025 NL Cy Young winner, he won the 2024 Rookie of the Year, and he is doing what Dwight Gooden did in 1984-85: stacking hardware in consecutive seasons. Doug Drabek, the last Pirate to win a Cy Young, presented Skenes his award. Thirty-five years between trophies, and now they’re handing them to kids in Pittsburgh like it’s expected.
“I don’t even think we’re playing our best baseball yet — which is scary to think about,” Skenes said after the Brewers game. THAT should be the quote the rest of the NL Central is taping to its bulletin board.
Konnor Griffin’s $140M Extension Is the Organization’s Biggest Bet
Sixteen days before his 20th birthday, Konnor Griffin signed a 9-year, $140M extension — the largest contract in Pirates franchise history, clearing the Bryan Reynolds deal by more than $33 million. He had five games of major-league experience. He was 19 years old. This is either an organization that believes in something real, or a front office that completely lost its mind.
The extension makes sense when you look at what Griffin did in the minors last year: .333/.415/.527, 21 home runs, 65 stolen bases across three levels. The bet isn’t on who he is right now — his MLB line before April 24 was .176/.300/.235, honest enough for a teenager finding his footing — the bet is on trajectory. Skenes put it plainly: “I’m super happy for him and his family. He’s gonna be the face of the Pirates for a long time.”
Then Griffin turned 20 on April 24, went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI, stole a base, and hit his first career home run to the opposite field — all in the same game Skenes was flirting with perfection. He and Barry Bonds are the only Pirates in the Modern Era to record a home run and a stolen base on their birthday. Griffin’s reaction: “Glad to get that one out of the way. Now we can get rolling.” Twenty years old. Already sounds like a franchise player.
.@KonnorGriffin22's first Major-League Home Run comes on his 20th birthday. How can you not be romantic about baseball? pic.twitter.com/Is1qCKBKfc
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 25, 2026
The Pirates Are 13-10 — It’s Time to Take Them Seriously
The NL Central is not a soft landing spot right now. All five teams entered this week above .500 — the Reds at 16-8, the Cubs and Cardinals at 14-9, the Brewers at 13-9, and the Pirates at 13-10. This division is going to grind people down all summer. The Pirates are sitting in it, not folding. Brandon Lowe, acquired in a three-team deal with Tampa Bay and Houston, assessed the situation plainly when he arrived in December: “I feel like there’s a real opportunity there for a deep push and some playoff baseball in Pittsburgh.” He’s a one-year rental — .256, 31 HR, 83 RBI in 2025, two All-Star appearances — not the long-term answer at second base, but exactly the kind of veteran you add when you think the window is cracking open.
There are real concerns here that shouldn’t be waved away — Skenes hits free agency after 2029, and the Gerrit Cole memory is never far from the surface in this city. The front office has earned some skepticism. But consider the Pittsburgh Pirates rebuild outlook going into this season against what’s actually on the field right now. A generational pitcher with a month of 2026 dominance already banked. A 20-year-old with a $140M extension and a birthday game that looked like a movie. The Konnor Griffin extension breakdown explains the organizational logic — they are betting on a core, not just collecting talent. Don Kelly said it after the Brewers game: “Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that he came up two years ago and he’s in his third season in the big leagues and he’s continuing to get better…” He meant Skenes. He could’ve meant the whole team.
The punchline era in Pittsburgh is done. Griffin said it at the extension presser: “The goal is to win. The goal is to win a World Series. I think we’ve got a clubhouse to go do that.” Nineteen years old at signing. Sounded like he meant it. And right now, 13-10 in the toughest division in the National League, there’s very little reason to argue with him.
