Will Paul Skenes leave a mark alongside MLB legends? Baseball analysts examine Pirates ace's promising early career

There have only been a handful of pitchers to have dominated like Paul Skenes has after he stepped foot on a major league mound. After the Pittsburgh Pirates ace made his MLB debut in May 2024 against the Chicago Cubs, the right-hander has earned two All-Star selections and has won the 2024 NL Rookie of the Year.

In 2024, Skenes went 11-3, posting a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings to become a Cy Young finalist. His 2025 stats are even more dominant as he looks the favorite to win the 2025 NL Cy Young.

On Saturday, MLB analysts Bob Costas and Brian Kelly discussed Skenes' place among the top pitchers and his potential to become one of the all-time greats. Kelly asked Costas if he thinks Skenes is an all-timer after the former shared some insane stats about the Pirates pitcher.

While Costas finds Skenes to be a great pitcher in his generation but when it comes to pitchers from different eras, he had his reservations.

"In his time, he's a great," Costas said on MLB Network. "And when we evaluate things historically, whether it's Bill James doing it or Hall of Fame voters doing it, I guess they're going to have to compare the best players to the context of their generation."

Costas went on to compare the Hall of Fame case of Jacob deGrom with Bob Gibson to suggest that you just can't compare pitchers of past generations to the current ones.

"Look, a few years ago, when Jacob deGrom appeared to have a chance to approach Bob Gibson's single-season ERA record of 1.12, it was relevant," Costas said. "And that’s saying nothing against deGrom -- pitch for pitch, inning for inning, he was the best in the game and matched up with the all-time greats. But he could go to the Hall of Fame, if he ever gets there, with fewer than 10 complete games and fewer than five shutouts.

"Whereas Gibson, in ’68, pitched 13 shutouts in 28 complete games -- which is more than the entire league will pitch. That isn’t like, ‘oh, when men were men’ or anything like that. It’s simply to say you can’t compare -- these are apples-and-oranges comparisons, and it has to be taken into account."

Brian Kelly reveals an insane stat that puts Paul Skenes among the best in the business at his age

Brian Kelly shared why Paul Skenes is deserving of all the attention and comparison to all-time greats. MLB Network shared a graphic that puts the Pirates pitcher among the best in the business historically.

As Kelly shared, among pitchers aged 22-23 in the expansion era (since 1961), Skenes ranks third in pitching WAR with 13.2 over 311 innings, along with an ERA+ of 219. Only Bert Blyleven (17.6 WAR, 606 IP, 150 ERA+) and Frank Tanana (15.8 WAR, 529.2 IP, 145 ERA+) rank ahead of him.

Skenes sits above Sam McDowell (13.1 WAR, 467.1 IP, 141 ERA+), Larry Dierker (12.8 WAR, 575 IP, 121 ERA+) and Tom Seaver (12.8 WAR, 529 IP, 129 ERA+).

This just goes to show how big of a pitcher Skenes already is at his age, and if he continues this in his long career, an argument can be made to place him among all-time great pitchers.