Paul Skenes Says Pirates Have to Be 'Better,' Players Need to Own Slow Start to Season

Paul Skenes says it's Pittsburgh Pirates players, not owner Bob Nutting or manager Derek Shelton, who need to improve after a 2-6 start to the 2025 season.

"Mr. Nutting and Shelty aren't the ones playing," Skenes told ESPN on Saturday. "We're the ones playing. If we were 8-0 through however many games we've played right now, the fans aren't booing. We've got to play better."

Skenes added: "I think pretty much everything has room to improve. We can play a lot better."

Skenes' comments come the day after a plane flying a banner that urged Nutting to sell the team was flown above PNC Park ahead of the Pirates' Friday home opener.

Pirates fans then chanted "sell the team" as the Pirates lost 9-4 to the New York Yankees.

Skenes, who was named the NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in Cy Young voting after his first season with the Pirates, has again been dominant through two starts of his second MLB season. He has struck out 13 batters, while allowing just two walks and two earned runs, over 12.1 innings of work.

That hasn't been enough to mollify Pirates fans who have watched the rest of the rotation struggle so far this season. Despite Skenes' continued excellence, Pittsburgh's starters have posted a combined 5.09 ERA, good for the seventh-highest in MLB heading into Saturday.

Fans have meanwhile watched the San Diego Padres give Jackson Merrill a nine-year extension after his own All-Star rookie season, while the Pirates don't appear close to a similar move for Skenes.

The Pirates entered the season with the fifth-lowest payroll in MLB, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Noah Hiles and Andrew Destin reported last month that no extensions for any players, including Skenes, seem likely in the near future.

For now, it sounds like Skenes is hoping his team will focus on improving with the roster available. The Pirates will look to contain Aaron Judge and New York's Torpedo bats to earn the team's first home win of the season in a Saturday afternoon rematch against the Yankees.