re: Are the Pirates really going to wait until next year to call Skenes up?

quote:

---

Teams don’t want their young pitchers to have drastic IP increases from one year to the next. Skenes threw 130 innings last year. Their goal for him this year is probably around 160. If he was an everyday starter in the majors opening day he’d blow by that. They’re trying to avoid a Strasburg or Joba situation where they can’t pitch him at the end of the year in a playoff run.

It’s not rocket science

---

It's not rocket science, but you got it wrong anyway.

It's all about his contract and the Pirates' control.

The Pirates can preserve a year of club control over Skenes by keeping him in the minors for three rotation cycles. If he stays in the minors for that time, he doesn't earn a full year of service time for 2024. This allows the Pirates to maximize the amount of time Skenes is in their organization.

This is not new, and it's not exclusive to pitchers. The Braves did the same thing with Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2018 by sending him to the minors to manipulate his service time.