Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes Named To National League All-Star Team

Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes has been named to the National League All-Star team for this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will take place on Tuesday, July 14 at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. The announcement was made by Major League Baseball tonight.

The 24-year-old Skenes joins Rip Sewell (1943-44, 1946) and Elroy Face (1959-61) as the only Pirates pitchers to be selected to the All-Star Game in three straight seasons (there was no All-Star Game in 1945). He previously became the first pitcher and one of five players to start in the All-Star Game in each of his first two Major League seasons (2024-25), joining Joe DiMaggio (seven straight, 1936-42), Ichiro Suzuki (four straight, 2001-04), Rod Carew (three straight, 1967-69) and Frank Robinson (two straight, 1956-57).

Skenes, who has become the first Pittsburgh player to be named to three consecutive All-Star Games since Andrew McCutchen (five straight, 2011-15), currently ranks fourth among all pitchers in the National League in strikeouts (119), behind only Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski (156), Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez (136) and teammate Braxton Ashcraft (122).

The 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner leads the National League in ERA (2.35) and strikeouts (505) since making his Major League debut on May 11, 2024 vs. Chicago (NL). Skenes is also second in batting average against (.201) and WHIP (0.96) in that time.

Skenes’ 119 strikeouts prior to the All-Star break are the eighth-most by any Pirates pitcher prior to the break in a single season (the first All-Star Game was held in 1933), trailing only Bob Veale (137, 1965), Veale (134, 1966), himself (131, 2025), teammate Mitch Keller (129, 2023), Francisco Liriano (125, 2015), Ashcraft (122, 2026) and Veale (122, 1970).