We are back baby! Happy Opening Day and happy return of the NS9 Bullpen Breakdown. I’ll be posting the bullpen graphic every day throughout the season from now until September 28th and hopefully the playoffs.
I’ll do a little writeup here on the blog every day to update you on the usage of the bullpen, who pitched last night, who’s available for the game today, etc. And even on Opening Day, we aren’t starting with a clean slate. Hunter Barco pitched most recently on Monday in the last game of spring training and tossed 48 pitches. I’m going to assume he’s most likely unavailable and is probably slated to pitch Sunday following Carmen Mlodzinski‘s start. Everyone else should be available as the Pirates begin the season today in New York against Freddy Peralta and the Mets. Plus, we have the off day tomorrow as well.
On the mound for the Pirates is Paul Skenes. You may have heard of him already. He’s making his second straight Opening Day start and what else can you say about him? Skenes won the NL Rookie of the Year in 2023 and followed it up by winning the NL Cy Young award last season. He’s had two straight sub 2.00 ERA seasons to start his career and comes into this season with a career 1.96 ERA. He begins his campaign for another Cy Young today or heck, MVP award? Hey if the Pirates make the playoffs and Skenes has another sub 2.00 ERA season with 20 wins…I think it’s a possibility (he finished 6th in MVP voting last year and the Pirates were nowhere near the postseason).
Skenes tossed 133.0 innings in his rookie season and then fired 187.2 innings last season so the reigns should be completely off of him this year and I’d expect him to push for 200 innings. Last year on Opening Day in Miami, Skenes went 5.1 innings with three hits and two runs allowed with seven strikeouts against the Marlins in what ended up being a bullpen blown 5-4 walkoff loss (Holderman and Bednar implosion). Skenes threw 94 pitches total in that start.
Let’s see what Skenes does today against a formidable Mets lineup on the road in what should be a packed house at Citi Field. We’ll be back after the game with our three takeaways and of course be back Friday morning with an updated bullpen breakdown.
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