Bill Murphy didn’t mean to stir the pot, but his defense of Paul Skenes landed like a challenge to Pirates fans who have spent years waiting for real progress.
The Pittsburgh pitching coach was speaking with Aiden Stepansky of MLB.com when he pushed back on the idea that Skenes’ 2026 season should be judged harshly. Murphy argued that the right-hander’s first two years in the majors set such a towering bar that anything short of that level now feels underwhelming.
“Paul spoiled people a little bit for the first two seasons,” Murphy said, describing his 2026 campaign as “really, really good.”
That’s not an outrageous thing to say on its face. Skenes was absurdly good early on, posting a combined 1.96 ERA across his first two major league seasons while winning NL Rookie of the Year in 2024 and the Cy Young Award in 2025. That kind of run is so rare that it almost guarantees a reset in expectations.
But there’s a difference between saying a pitcher can’t be expected to live at that level forever and suggesting fans are out of line for noticing when the standard slips. That’s where Murphy’s comments rubbed the wrong way.
Skenes’ 2026 line was still solid by ordinary major league standards: a 10-11 record, a 3.82 ERA, 200 strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP over 174 1/3 innings. He also reached 200 strikeouts for the second straight year, which is no small feat.
Still, this wasn’t just a case of people nitpicking a great pitcher because he wasn’t superhuman. The drop-off showed up in the numbers.
Skenes’ ERA jumped from 1.97 in 2025 to 3.82 in 2026. His average four-seam fastball velocity fell from 98.1 mph to 96.8 mph, and his walk rate rose to a career-high 2.53 per nine innings.
Those are real changes, not made-up complaints from an impatient fan base.
Even Skenes has acknowledged that his season wasn’t right. In September, he said his participation in the World Baseball Classic may have thrown off his normal spring preparation and contributed to the mechanical issues and declining velocity that followed him through the year.
That’s why Murphy’s framing feels off. The pitcher himself has already pointed to legitimate concerns and said he wants to fix them. Fans aren’t inventing problems when they notice the same things.
To be fair, Murphy didn’t spend the whole interview brushing aside the issue. He said he believed Skenes would bounce back and also acknowledged that he needed to help pitchers adjust more quickly. He took some responsibility for the staff’s shortcomings, too.
But the larger message still came across as defensive, especially with the season the Pirates just had.
Pittsburgh finished 82-80 in 2026, good for its first winning record since 2018, but still short of the postseason. The rotation, once viewed as the club’s biggest strength, saw its collective ERA rise from 3.71 in 2025 to 4.23.
Skenes wasn’t the only reason for that dip, but he was a major part of a year that fell short of what the Pirates expected from their starting staff.
And that’s the real issue here. The Pirates have spent years asking fans to buy into the future.
Now they have a true centerpiece in Skenes, a pitcher who can anchor a contender, and that naturally raises the bar. Fans are allowed to expect more.
In fact, the organization should welcome that.
Nobody is asking Skenes to throw a sub-2.00 ERA forever. One uneven season doesn’t erase what he is or what he can be. But if Pittsburgh wants to move forward, it needs its ace to be much closer to his best than he was in 2026.
Murphy was right to stand up for his pitcher. He just didn’t need to imply that fans were spoiled for wanting more.
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