Brewers fans can't help but smile at Pirates fans' fading patience with Paul Skenes

Paul Skenes is the greatest thing to happen to Pittsburgh Pirates fans since...Andrew McCutchen? And yet, the 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner's recent cold stretch has Pirates fans questioning Skenes' stoic demeanor and his analysis of what's been going wrong for him as of late.

Skenes has been one of the few bright spots in what has otherwise been a rather dismal stretch for Pirates fans. Drafted as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Skenes had the type of rise to MLB that front office executives and fans dream of. 10 months after he was drafted, Skenes made his MLB debut, and just two short months later he was named the National League's starting pitcher in the 2024 All-Star Game.

Finishing his inaugural season with a stellar 1.96 ERA and 11 wins in just 23 starts, Skenes ran away with the NL Rookie of the Year Award, finished third in NL Cy Young voting, and even received MVP votes. For a Pirates' fanbase looking for any reason to be encouraged about the future of their ballclub, Skenes' historic rookie season was the perfect spark.

The dominant right-hander then turned in the perfect sequel to his Rookie of the Year campaign. After maintaining a 1.97 ERA through 32 starts during the 2025 campaign, Skenes was the easy choice for the NL's Cy Young Award, giving him his second major award in just his second season in the big leagues, while establishing himself as one of the clear-cut best pitchers in baseball.

The 2026 season, however, has been rather disappointing in relation to the sky-high standards that Skenes has set for himself. Though Skenes was his normal dominant self through the first three months of the season, with a strong 2.86 ERA to prove it, his last two months have been anything but dominant, and Pirates fans are unfairly starting to lose their patience.

Brewers' win over Paul Skenes on Wednesday night continues confounding stretch for 2025 NL Cy Young winner

Perhaps the most perplexing part of Skenes' recent underperformance has been the increase in his once stellar walk rate. Through his first two seasons, Skenes had pinpoint command, with an excellent 5.9% walk rate to prove it. When he looked like his normal self during his first 16 starts of the 2026 season, that rate dropped down to 5.1%. However, dating back to a start on June 26 when his ERA started climbing, Skenes' walk rate has jumped up to 9.9%.

His lack of command was on display from the onset last night; Skenes started his outing with a four-pitch walk to Brice Turang. In the fourth inning, during which Christian Yelich and Andrew Vaughn combined for three RBI, the first two runs that came around to score got on base via a walk.

After the game, in which Skenes earned his 10th loss of the season, which now outnumber his nine wins, the Pirates' ace said the walks were the result of him trying to be "too perfect" rather than pound the zone and trust his defense, as seen in the video below captured by MLB.com's Zach Sweet.

Perhaps Skenes' feeling of needing to work the edges of the strike zone more than he has in years past is a product of his dip in fastball velocity this season. After averaging more than 98 mph on his four-seam fastball in each of his first two seasons in the majors, Skenes' average fastball velo is down to 96.9 mph this season.

Regardless of the reason for his recent underperformance, Pirates fans are starting to lose their patience with Skenes. As noted on FanSided's Pirates' site RumBunter.com, fans are wanting Skenes to take more accountability and offer more transparency when it comes to what he believes is causing his recent struggles.

However, for the face of a franchise that hasn't seen many superstars in their dugout over the last decade, surely Skenes should be awarded more grace than what the Pirates faithful are offering him. After all, there are reasons to believe Skenes when he says "I'm not going to let it continue," in regard to his recent upswing in walk rate. Aside from his slight decrease in velocity, Skenes' underlying metrics remain sound, suggesting that if he truly stops trying to be "too perfect" and starts pounding the zone once again, his past dominance will return.

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