Paul Skenes Blames World Baseball Classic for 2026 Pitching Struggles

What Happened

Paul Skenes isn't the same pitcher who dominated his way to the 2025 NL Cy Young Award — and he thinks he knows why. Heading into his final scheduled start of the 2026 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace owns a 3.97 ERA across 31 starts, a steep drop from last year's 1.97 mark. When asked about the difference, Skenes pointed to an unusual culprit: the World Baseball Classic.

The tournament ran from March 5 to 17, right in the middle of what's normally a slow, deliberate spring ramp-up period for starting pitchers. Skenes said that disrupted timing threw off his usual buildup. Normally, he explained, velocity climbs gradually through live batting practice sessions — 97 mph one day, 98 or 99 the next. This year, that natural progression never happened.

Why His Velocity Dip Matters

Skenes built his reputation as one of baseball's most electric arms by consistently touching triple digits. This season, hitting 100 mph has become the exception rather than the rule. That's a significant shift for a pitcher whose fastball is central to his identity on the mound.

Interestingly, his strikeout numbers haven't collapsed in the same way — he's struck out 192 batters in 168 innings this year, not far off last year's pace of 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings. That suggests the issue isn't a loss of feel or sharpness so much as a drop in raw velocity and command, exactly what Skenes described.

The Bigger Picture

Skenes was careful not to place all the blame on the WBC, acknowledging "there are a lot of other factors" behind his down year. But he called the tournament's timing "kind of the root of it a little bit."

This ties into a broader debate from earlier in 2026, when several star players chose to skip or limit their WBC involvement to protect their season prep. Those players faced criticism at the time for opting out. Skenes' comments now add a layer of hindsight to that conversation — suggesting the players who sat out may have been onto something.

As national team tournaments continue to compete for calendar space with MLB's regular season, Skenes' experience could become a talking point the next time the WBC rolls around, especially for pitchers whose value is tied so closely to arm health and mechanical rhythm.