Albert Belle says Pirates screwed up not starting season with Skenes

Former MLB slugger Albert Belle says the Pirates shot themselves in the foot earlier this season.

How? Because Paul Skenes didn’t start the season.

“Obviously, he should’ve started the season with the Big-League team,” Belle said on the Audacy original, Bret Boone Podcast .

Belle says he understand why the Pirates didn’t call up Skenes, at least from a financial aspect.

“He missed eight starts because you wanted to push everything back, his arbitration and his free agency,” said Belle.

Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington says the organization wanted to make sure Skenes checked all of the boxes in the minor leagues before he was promoted to the MLB.

Belle looks at it like this. Of those eight starts that Skenes didn’t make, if the Pirates would’ve one half of them, “We’d be at 52 and 44 so, we’d be in a pretty good position.”

A record of 52-44 would only put the Pirates back a few games of the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and firmly in a Wild Card spot.

If Skenes did begin the 2024 season in Pittsburgh, he would’ve done so with only 6.2 innings in his minor league career.

He had a total of 34 innings before he was called up to the Pirates.

Skenes is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA over 66.1 innings pitched.