Pirates’ Skenes, Yankees’ Gil win Rookie of the Year award

On the penultimate day of the regular season, the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates met on a cloudy afternoon at Yankee Stadium for a game of little consequence. The Yankees had already won the American League East title. The last-place Pirates were 24 hours away from another long offseason.

But the game featured an intriguing matchup within the game: two starting pitchers with very different backgrounds and stories who happened to be leading contenders for Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues on the mound opposite each other. on the other.

For the Pirates: Paul Skenes, the generational talent on the rise after 14 months out of college. For the Yankees: Luis Gil, a 26-year-old revelation removed from Tommy John surgery for more than two years.

Nearly two months after this meeting, the two right-handers were recognized Monday as the best rookies in their league. Skenes was voted the National League Rookie of the Year, beating out a loaded field headlined by outfielders Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio after posting one of the best rookie seasons for a pitcher in NHL history. major leagues. Gil edged out teammate and catcher Austin Wells and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser to win the American League award in a close race.

Skenes, who made his debut less than a year after being selected with the first pick in the 2023 draft, surpassed expectations in his first taste of the major leagues to become the second Rookie of the Year award winner in the story of the Pirates (Jason Bay, 2004). ) with 23 of the 30 first place votes. With the honor, he earned a full year of service despite not being called up to the majors until May, making him eligible for free agency after the 2029 season.

“Our goal, first and foremost, was to make all my starts,” said Skenes, a former two-way star at Air Force who became a full-time pitcher during his junior season at LSU in 2023. “And then , beyond that it was basically about seeing the best version of myself so I felt really good this year. I stayed healthy and felt really good all year. And then the results, I think, speak for themselves.

Skenes, 22, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts over 133 innings. His 1.96 ERA was the lowest for any rookie with at least 20 starts in the live ball era, dating to 1920, and the lowest in baseball in 2024 among pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched. His WHIP of 0.95 was tied for the best in the National League. His 170 strikeouts were a franchise rookie record. His 4.3 fWAR ranked 10th among major league pitchers. With this performance, he was selected as one of three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award along with veterans Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler. This winner will be announced on Wednesday.

On Monday, Merrill finished second with the seven other first-place votes and Chourio third. Merrill, a shortstop in the minors last season, was the San Diego Padres’ starting center fielder on Opening Day at just 20 years old. He excelled in all facets, finishing the season with a .292/.326/.500 slash line, 24 home runs, 90 RBIs and 16 steals in 156 games while playing above-average defense. His 5.3 fWAR led all rookies.

Chourio, who doesn’t turn 21 until March, signed an $82 million extension last offseason before making his major league debut and, after a slow start, has lived up to his investment. Chourio broke down in tears after posting a .201 batting average and .575 OPS through June 1, hitting .305 with 16 home runs and an .888 OPS over his last 97 games.

In the American League, Gil collected 15 of 30 first-place votes, narrowly edging out Cowser, who finished with 13 first-place votes and five points behind Gil. Oakland A’s closer Mason Miller and Cleveland Guardians reliever Cade Smith each got a first-place vote. The five-point spread marks the second closest election in an AL Rookie of the Year race since three-way voting was introduced in 2003.

“I was focused on having a good year, helping the team win as much as possible and focusing on my career,” Gil said.

Gil entered spring training as an afterthought in the Yankees’ plan, who was scheduled to start the season in the minors after being sent to minor league camp in early March. The Yankees had their starting rotation established. Gil had electric stuff, but command was an issue and he logged just four innings in A-ball in 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022. Next up, reigning AL Cy winner Gerrit Cole Young Award, was stopped due to an elbow injury. subsequently opening a place for Gil. He didn’t give up.

Gil went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 29 starts. He led all AL rookies in wins, innings pitched (151⅔) and strikeouts (171). His 1.82 ERA in 12 starts helped the Yankees get through the club’s 2 1/2 months without Cole to start the season and solidified his place in the rotation for the rest of the season. He allowed one hit or fewer in five outings, tied for the most by a rookie since the mound was moved to 60 feet, six inches in 1893, according to ESPN Research. He did not allow an earned run in six of his starts, the most for a Yankees rookie since 1913.

Drafted by the Minnesota Twins out of the Dominican Republic in 2015 and traded to the Yankees three years later, Gil is the 10th Yankees player to earn the honor. He is the first Yankee to win it since Aaron Judge in 2017 and the first Yankees pitcher since Dave Righetti in 1981. He is the fifth player born in the Dominican Republic to win the award.

“He worked very hard to put himself in a strong position heading into spring training after returning from Tommy John surgery,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in a statement. “With no guarantee of a major league spot, he really opened the door this spring and had a phenomenal rookie season. Luis continued to mature and develop all year and was one of the mainstays of our rotation.”

Unlike Gil, there was no doubt that Skenes was a major league caliber pitcher during spring training, but the Pirates opted not to include him on their Opening Day roster. The rationale was simple: Skenes logged just 6⅔ innings as a professional in 2023 after racking up 122⅔ innings for LSU. Skenes was therefore sent to Triple-A for more seasoning and dominated with a limited workload. In seven starts, Skenes posted a 0.99 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 27⅓ innings.

Finally, on May 11, Skenes made his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs. He allowed three runs with seven strikeouts in four innings. He would only allow at least three earned runs twice more in his final 22 starts.

His first 11 outings were so dominant (1.90 ERA, 89 strikeouts to 13 walks in 66⅓ innings and seven hitless innings in his final start of the first half against the Milwaukee Brewers) that he was named the NL All-Star Team starting pitcher, setting the stage for an electric first inning in Arlington, Texas, against four of the sport’s best hitters. Skenes, the fifth rookie to start the exhibition, threw 16 pitches to Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. He walked Soto in an otherwise clean inning. He reached 100 mph and showcased his splinker – a splitter-lead hybrid. The sequence, like each of his debuts, was must-see television.

He pitched the ninth inning for the first time as a professional in his first start after the All-Star Game, taking an unlucky 2–1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals after allowing one run in the ninth. But Pittsburgh, despite adding players at the trade deadline, fell out of the wild-card race over time.

The Pirates, anxious not to overwork Skenes, asked him for additional rest – five or six days – during each of his starts. But he has logged at least six innings in 16 of his 23 starts. He threw at least 100 pitches in nine of them. He closed out his season strong, allowing just two runs in five starts in September. His last outing was brief but spectacular: two perfect innings at Yankee Stadium, one of the biggest stages in sports, against one of his most talented peers.

The goal next year? To delve deeper into games more often from opening day.

“I think just being able to stay on the field for seven or eight innings rather than five or six innings every outing, that’s going to be the biggest thing,” Skenes said. “We’re starting with the end in mind. We’re going to figure out how to get there.”