Paul Skenes' whirlwind season has taken him from No. 1 draft pick to the All-Star Game, but he's not done yet

ARLINGTON -- Barely a year ago, Paul Skenes was a collegiate baseball player. He had just won the national championship with the LSU Tigers. The Pittsburgh Pirates made him the No. 1 pick at the draft. Tomorrow, Skenes will be taking the hill for the National League team as the All-Star Game's starting pitcher.

"Pretty dang cool to even be in this position, to be at the All-Star Game in the first place," the 22-year-old phenom said Monday. "Just super grateful to be given the opportunity to start it. So thank you."

If you think this trajectory sounds rare, it's because it is. In fact, it's never happened before. Skenes is the first player to be the top overall draft pick and then be named to the All-Star Game the following year. And it's not even like he's simply on the team. He's in the spotlight. He is the fifth rookie to ever start the Midsummer Classic.

The AL lineup starts with Steven Kwan , a table-setter leading the majors with a .352 average, before the power hitters Gunnar Henderson , Juan Soto and Aaron Judge . Kwan knows he's tasked with getting on base so the masses get to see the power hitters bat with a runner on, as he's used to doing for fellow Guardians All-Star José Ramírez.

"I've been telling everybody, it's gonna be really cool. I've been watching on TV and seeing what he does. It's crazy seeing on TV a pitch move like that -- it probably shouldn't at that velocity. It'll be really fun. You play Major League Baseball to play against the best and that's one of the best right there," Kwan, the Guardians' Gold Glove outfielder, said.

"I'm gonna try to dive over the plate and get hit or bunt for a single or something. We've seen those kind of profiles on pitches before but it's like that to the Nth degree, so we'll see what it's like. I'll just pick everybody's brain to see how to approach it. The vets will have a good idea."

As for what went into the decision, Diamondbacks manager Torey Luvollo, who gets to manage the NL in the All-Star Game after winning the pennant last year, called picking Skenes a "no-brainer."

"I wanted to hit the sweet spot and hit it right. I wanted to be situationally aware of some of the other great arms that were possibilities," Luvollo said.

"Paul is everything right about this game. You mentioned youthfulness. He just got drafted. Youthfulness of the All-Star Game. Just his ability to balance what he's had to go through over the past year has been amazing. He does it with humility. He does it very, very well."

Though Skenes started the year in the minors, the season he's having is absolutely good enough to merit the top spot. Through 11 starts, he's 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA and 0.92 WHIP. He's struck out 89 in 66 1/3 innings while only walking 13. He's twice been pulled from starts with zero hits allowed. He's struck out 11 batters twice. His two bad starts are when he allowed a whopping -- please note the dripping sarcasm there -- three runs. The Pirates are 8-3 when he starts and 40-45 when he doesn't. He has absolutely taken the league by storm.

"He's really impressive. He was in college last year and now is an All-Star. I'm really excited to watch him pitch," said former No. 1 pick Carlos Correa . "There's pressure as a No. 1 overall pick to play at a high level and he's been impressive through it."

Even the players can't stop talking about him, including those who haven't even faced him.

The Brewers just saw him. Saw plenty of him. They saw him for seven innings and didn't get a hit. Former MVP and now three-time All-Star Christian Yelich struck out looking before two groundouts and was incredibly impressed.

"He's really advanced for his age. He obviously has great stuff but there's guys throughout the league who have great stuff, too. He knows how to use it, how to pitch, especially for being so young. He has a good idea of what he's doing out there," Yelich said.

"Not downplaying 100, but you see 100 a lot. There's a lot of guys who throw 100, but he's not up there just ripping 100. He's pitching. And when you have 100 in the tank, too, that's when it's a little different. He was changing speeds with us, [the sinker] was anywhere from 91 to 95-96 and his fastball is 100. He knows how to use his arsenal, it kind of seemed like he knew what he was doing, setting us up. He was pretty advanced."

The Tigers saw him, too. They scraped together three hits and two earned runs off of him.

"We knew he threw 100," said Detroit All-Star Riley Greene . "We knew he had the splunker at 95 and he has the sweeper. I think I was 0 for 3 and was like, man, I need to see him more so I can try to figure him out. He's good. I feel like every time he's on the mound, he does something special. It's like no hit here, punches out a bunch out there."

That pitch, whatever you call it, keeps coming up. Skenes calls it a sinker. Others call it a splinker -- combination sinker and split-finger fastball. Whatever it is, no one can seem to hit it.

"It had different action every time," said Yelich. "It was one of those things where it was just really hard to square up. So much depth and late movement to it."

Skenes said he "kind of started fooling around with it between when the college season wrapped up (in 2023) and when I was going to report to the complex for the draft."

"Figured out a different cue for it. Started throwing it and got command over it. The last part was throwing it to hitters and see how they react to it," he said Monday.

"I call it a sinker. Everybody else calls it a splinker. That's how I view it: having a different fastball, different shape and (forcing) hitters to choose between one or the other."

On Tuesday, Skenes gets to show off his sinker on a national stage. Odds are it won't be the last time.