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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The phrase 'built different' is thrown around all too loosely throughout the sports world these days, but if there ever was a player who fit that definition it would be Paul Skenes.
Skenes, the rookie phenom, will have his contract selected prior to this Saturday's game and there is sure to be electricity throughout PNC Park and Pittsburgh as a whole with the Chicago Cubs in town.
After all, just less than a year ago he was selected as the first overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft. Now, he'll be on the mound for the Pirates.
With that comes expectations and pressure that certainly are through the roof for many players who've been in his shoes before, but for Skenes, that's not necessarily how he views pressure.
"I wouldn't say it's something I don't feel, but I think if you simplify the game and make the game just about executing, just simplify when you're doing your work throughout the week. On the field, off the field, strength, conditioning, nutrition, all that adds up to let you execute on the field," Skenes said. "No matter who you are, and how much perceived pressure there is on you, if you execute, you're gonna win and the best players just execute more often than the others. The goal is just to execute every time I pitch and play. That's kind of how I see it … I don't think about it too much."
While he might not think about the pressure and expectations bestowed to a player in his position, it's simple for others to do so. Though, for Skenes his ability on the field seems to pale in comparison to the person he is off the field.
He began his journey at the Air Force Academy before transferring to Louisiana State and beginning to cement his place atop the collegiate pitching ranks.
It was at LSU that coach Jay Johnson got a front row seat for how special Skenes is and can be as well as what sets him apart from his peers.
"Self discipline," Johnson said. "He's exactly what you think you would get out of a person that spent two years in a military academy in terms of selflessness, commitment to team, commitment to a high standard commitment to work. It's literally all encompassing."
Skenes is the rare combination of talent and self-discipline that help make up the recipe for an elite pitcher.
"He has this exceptional talent and that's what you get with Paul Skenes," Johnson said. "He has exceptional talent, that level of self discipline and determination and focus and intelligence. It's just all there, you know, plain and simple."
Johnson got a glimpse of how special Skenes could be when he was a freshman at Air Force.
"They came and played us in Arizona. Mike Kazlausky at Air Force kind of tipped his hand to be like he probably can only stay with them for two years you definitely want this guy," Johnson said. "Then we watched him play, hit and pitch. and how he carried himself. You could see this guy's different."
Then Skenes got to campus and the rest as they say is history.
"In the recruiting process, the respect level, the communication on the campus visit," Johnson said. "It's just a person far beyond his years relative to the normal college baseball player in terms of the things he thinks about, the way he articulates himself and just the way his whole being."
A conversation with Skenes and you'd fail to remember he's just weeks shy of his 22nd birthday then you see him step on the mound and see the physical specimen he is at 6-foot-6, 235 pounds.
Johnson's Tigers squad was good before Skenes got there, but he took it to another level and it didn't take long for him to realize how good Skenes was going to be for him.
"We were one of the best offensive modern college baseball history and literally couldn't do anything against him," Johnson said. "It was almost a surprise and somebody got a hit kind of thing. At the beginning of the season, it's like you've never see anybody dominate like that. It's seven innings maybe a run and 13 strikeouts every time."
The dominance on the mound and the character off it made Skenes the easy selection for Ben Cherington and the Pirates last year.
"I think the Pirates hit the jackpot by having a number one pick last year with Paul available because a player like this, the caliber a person he is hardly ever comes around."
Skenes operates with intent in everything he does whether it's a workout at LSU in the offseason, a bullpen in between starts or an outing on the mound. That level of intent that separates him from his competitors and raise his game to an elite level.
It's one of many things that Cherington enjoys watching from Skenes and has him excited for what looks to be a promising future in the black and gold.
"It's the competitor on the mound, but to me, it's more about what he does between starts and off the mound," Cherington said. "The work he puts in, the intention he puts into the work and the desire to do things that are not easy, to try things that are hard to challenge himself between the starts. That all adds up to what he does on the mound."
Being elite isn't overly common and it takes a special player to take a great skill set and transform it to elite. Skenes certainly has the capability to make that happen given his performance in college and so far as a professional.
"I wouldn't say unusual because there are lots of high performers in the major leagues who have those qualities, but you certainly see it when someone has it and we see it with him," Cherington said.
Come Saturday, Major League dreams will become a reality for Skenes and he will be toeing the rubber in front of what looks to be a capacity crowd at PNC Park much like he has throughout his career.
Johnson, Cherington and Pirates fans will eagerly be watching every movement Skenes makes as his Major League career gets underway. They'll do so knowing the player on the field is as good as the person making him already a fan favorite.
"He's the easiest guy in the world to pull for because even though he's better than everybody else, he never acted that way or treated anybody else as such," Johnson said.