MLB Misses Huge Opportunity With Tarik Skubal And Paul Skenes
MLB needs to showcase its young stars.
What a massive missed opportunity from Major League Baseball.
Thursday could have featured a must-see matchup of two of the best young pitchers, two of the best pitchers period in baseball against each other. Initially, Tarik Skubal was scheduled to start the first game of Thursday's doubleheader for the Detroit Tigers against the Pittsburgh Pirates. His scheduled opponent?
Pirates superstar Paul Skenes.
The 2024 American League Cy Young winner against the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and current Cy Young favorite. Does it get any better than that?
Except, of course, it didn't happen. Skubal started the first game of the doubleheader, and Skenes started game two. Asked about it pregame, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said that he too wanted to see the two stars matchup, but Skubal preferred to pitch the earlier game.
"I've gotten this question maybe a hundred times in the last 12 hours," Hinch said. "I'll make it really simple from our standpoint. I went to Tarik and asked him which game he wanted, and he said the early one. At that point, we're gonna lock in Tarik for the game that he can prepare for."
"From a baseball standpoint, of course it's cool when the matchup is incredible as those two, if that would've happened," Hinch continued. "But from the strategy standpoint and outthinking and just doing it for the sake of doing it, I'm gonna take care of my guy and let sort of the baseball work itself out, how it does."
Count former MLB catcher A.J. Pierzynski among those who were confused and disappointed by the decision. He told OutKick's Dan Dakich as much on Thursday morning before the first game of the doubleheader.
Maybe a call from Rob Manfred down to the Pirates or Tigers dugout wouldn't have been the worst idea?
Jun 19, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) pitches in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
MLB Needs To Prioritize Skenes-Skubal Type Matchups
Obviously, it's not easy or right for the league office to step in and demand that two teams go against their players' wishes or their own schedules and start a given game. But the marketing and highlights that a Skenes-Skubal matchup would create are exactly the type of attention-grabbing material that MLB desperately craves.
These two pitchers are the present and future best pitchers in baseball. Getting them together as many times as possible could, and should be, the goal.
Skubal, naturally, dominated in game one, despite some tough conditions, striking out six over 5 ⅔ innings with two runs allowed. Detroit won 9-2. Skenes, in game two, battled his command, walking five over six innings, but struck out nine with just two runs allowed in six innings. Would have been nice to see them against each other.
In classic Pirates fashion, their always shaky bullpen once again blew a lead after Skenes left the game. How often does that happen? Well, we went back and looked.
Over the course of the season, Pirates relievers have pitched 42 innings after Skenes came out of a start, and they've allowed 23 runs in those 42 innings. That's a 4.93 ERA, which is awful on its own. But it looks even worse considering the Pirates' overall bullpen ERA this season is 4.09. They're actually worse when Skenes is no longer pitching in a game he's started.
They've blown lead after lead, or given him no run support when he's pitched well. In one start, on May 18th, Skenes finished off an eight-inning complete game, allowing just one run to a very difficult Philadelphia Phillies lineup. How was his complete game only eight innings? Because the Pirates offense never scored, of course.
Four times in 16 starts, Skenes left the game with his team leading, only to see the Pirates bullpen blow it.
Still, watching him and Skubal go head-to-head is a baseball fan's dream. And we were robbed of it on Thursday. If they happen to line up again, let's hope wiser heads prevail and make this happen. It should have already.