Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'll be kicking off your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
After an interminable wait for Pittsburgh fans (read: less than 10 months), the Pirates on Wednesday finally announced that they will call up shortstop Paul Skenes to make his major league debut Saturday at PNC Park against the Cubs.
The first pick in the 2023 draft reached the top after 12 minor league starts and just 34 innings. After the organization limited him to just five starts and 6 2/3 innings at three minor league levels last year, Skenes started this season at Triple-A Indianapolis and hit it big. Over seven innings (27 1/3 innings), the 6'6” righty posted a 0.99 ERA and struck out 42.9% of the batters he faced while walking just 7.6% of them.
In many ways, how Skenes will perform on Saturday is the biggest concern for the Pirates when it comes to their prized prospect. The real puzzle will be managing his workload. Skenes has never thrown more than 75 pitches in a professional game, and his last Triple-A start was his first on just four days' rest, cut from the regular rotation after pitching once a week at Louisiana State.
Skenes' situation is somewhat similar to that of Pittsburgh's other stud rookie starter Jared Jones, who has only had one regular rest this year — a start in which he was limited to 59 pitches (50 strikes!) in five scoreless innings. . We should expect that the Pirates will be careful or very careful with Skenes when it comes to load management.
The arrival of Skenes also means that Pittsburgh will need veterans Mitch Keller and Martín Pérez to handle more innings if they start to lighten the load on the bullpen, which will almost certainly cover at least three innings if Skenes plays. Deciding how to put everything together will be another challenge for the Pirates.
All that said, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. After all, these are the problems that the Pirates have to deal with, not us. Instead, our job is simple: sit back and enjoy the debut.
Chris Sale Looks Vintage Against His Old Team
Braves lefty Chris Sale got to meet his old Red Sox teammates on Wednesday, though it wasn't exactly a great day in Boston. Sale turned in his best start since being traded to Atlanta in the winter, with six scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts.
The seven-time All-Star topped out at 97.2 mph and averaged 94.8 mph on his fastball, up 0.6 mph from his average in his other six starts. His slide was abysmal, with the Red Sox giving up 18 runs and 13 runs.
It's probably too early for him to declare it all sold out, but he's far better than he's been in years. Over his last four starts, he is 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 25 innings; twice in that span he has completed seven innings. Overall for the season, Sale is 5-1 (42 2/3 innings) with a 2.95 ERA, 2.64 FIP, 30.6% strikeout rate, 4.7% walk rate, and 1.2 WAR. Yes, that will play.
The Yankees Big Boys Finally Explode
Despite losing to the Astros on Thursday, 4-3, to snap a five-game winning streak, the Yankees got a big home run from Aaron Judge, a sign of why they were playing so well last week: their offense is finally alive.
The most motivating part of Wednesday's win — the last in a row — was that Judge, Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton all played in the same game for the first time since New York traded Soto earlier in the season. Soto has been better than ever this year, but Judge and Stanton have struggled in the first month of the season. However, in the past week, the two sluggers have started hooking up again. Judge hit .500/.591/1.096 (346 wRC+, and no, no typos there!) during a five-game hitting streak, hitting two homers and four doubles. Meanwhile, Stanton hit two big home runs in the series against Houston. The first, off Justin Verlander on Tuesday, was clocked at 118.8 mph off the bat; the next night he topped it, with a 119.9 mph missile – the hardest fastball in the majors this season.
The one Yankees hitter who hasn't changed things up is Gleyber Torres. He hit .176/.300/.176 with a 54 wRC+ during the streak, before going 1-for-3 with a walk in Thursday's game. On the season, his last before free agency, Torres is hitting .215/.301/.264 with one home run, after hitting 25 homers last season, and his wRC+ of 71 is off the mark last year's 123. .
Craig Kimbrel's Honeymoon period is over
No one can really replace Félix Bautista, but Craig Kimbrel was doing his best when Ben Clemens replaced him on April 16. I wouldn't call this the Clemens curse (patent pending) because Kimbrel was seen without three points after publication of the subject. , but has been on a downward spiral since then.
Perhaps because of a back injury that forced him out of the game on April 28 and kept him out until May 3, Kimbrel has five points in his past six games. During that time, he has walked 8 of the 23 batters he has faced, and has given up two homers. When I watch him, he falls into the mechanical failure that has plagued him every year since 2019: He moves his fastball to the side instead of getting under it and letting it ride up the pitch, which he does successfully. in his first 10 outings of the season.
Baltimore needs Kimbrel to get it, and get it fast. For whatever reason, he's not very successful at doing anything other than closing, so restructuring the bullpen could make the versatile righty ineffective. As the O's eye their second straight division title, they'll be keeping a close eye on the bullpen and won't be afraid to upgrade it in July.
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