Superstar major league baseball players often played every position on the diamond throughout their amateur careers before settling into one spot at the major league level, and that’s no different for one big young star.
Despite setting the world on fire en route to becoming the No. 1 pick and making his highly-anticipated debut last week, one pitcher believes he could also be a difference-maker as a catcher.
Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes appeared on The Pat McAfee Show today and said “I’ve been on this for a while and for some reason there’s no video of me catching” and added, “I believe I can play catcher and I miss that as much as I miss hitting.”
“I’ve been on this for a while and for some reason there’s no video of me catching..
I believe I can play catcher and I miss that as much as I miss hitting” ~ @Paul_Skenes #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/vwQzd8cwR3
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 14, 2024
Skenes began his college career at Air Force and was quite the hitter, as he had a .410 batting average and an 1.183 OPS as a freshman in 2021 with 11 homers in 48 games.
He followed that up with a .314 average and 13 homers in 2022 and appeared at a combined 30 games at catcher over the two seasons.
In 2021, he was probably a better hitting prospect than a pitching prospect, which is wild to think about considering he just had the most hyped pitcher debut since Stephen Strasburg.
Skenes isn’t wrong for these statements, as he was a beast at the plate before he blew up as a pitcher at LSU.
It’s a shame we’ll never get to see him hit now that the National League has adopted the DH, and there’s no way the Pirates will risk putting him behind the plate no matter how badly he wants to.
