Brandon Brown
Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes, the game’s best pitcher and the No. 1 pick in last summer’s draft, will make his big league debut Saturday against the Chicago Cubs. As CBS Sports recently detailed, Skenes has the potential to be an impact pitcher at the highest level. He has a nearly unparalleled power arsenal that includes a triple-digit fastball, a swing-and-miss slider and a newly created sinker that pitch classification algorithms mistake for a splitter.
The arrival of Skenes, combined with the continued existence of Jared Jones, means the Pirates will now have two of the most exciting young starters in the game. Although overshadowed in the Pirates’ farm system by Skenes last year, Jones began his big league career brightly. Through seven starts, he accumulated a 2.63 ERA (153 ERA+) and a 10.40 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His contributions have already been worth about 1.3 wins above replacement.
The Skenes-Jones combination got us thinking about some of the other best young duos in the game. In turn, we decided to rank what we consider to be the 10 best young starting pitcher combinations. To qualify, both pitchers had to be in the major leagues (or on the injured list) and eligible this season at least 25 years of age. (We admit that 25 is a completely arbitrary number, but it allowed us to arrive at 10 tandems.)
Below we classify our pairs in descending order of quality. These rankings are based in part on what the duo did in the majors and in part on what we predict they will do in the future. This is obviously more of an art than a science. If we had to guess, most of the disagreements with our rankings will be based on the description versus prediction aspect, as well as not penalizing elite performers for being paired with less-than-elite partners.
With all the fine print out of the way, let’s get down to business.
After a difficult first start in MLB, Yamamoto established himself and demonstrated why he won three consecutive MVP and Cy Young-equivalent awards to end his Nippon Professional Baseball career. He is sporting a 1.76 ERA over his last seven starts and has not allowed a single run in four of his eight starts. Miller, meanwhile, has shoulder inflammation after posting a 3.90 ERA (112 ERA+) and a 3.61 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first 25 big league starts.
If we had carried out this exercise last summer, Strider and Elder might have taken first place. As things stand, they will have to settle for second place. (And we’d understand anyone who thinks the Braves should be inferior because they’re a very…let’s say lopsided matchup.) Make no mistake: This ranking is due almost entirely to Strider, an elite performer with an electric arm. Unfortunately, he won’t be pitching anytime soon after undergoing elbow surgery. Elder, on the other hand, has seen diminishing returns in his smoke and mirrors show since making the 2023 All-Star Game. In 16 starts since then, he has compiled an ERA north of 5.00.
3. Paul Skenes and Jared Jones, Pirates
Skenes is the only pitcher in this article who has not appeared in the majors, so this placement is about our projection that he will become the No. 2 starter or better. (Lest anyone get mad: We subscribe to the thinking that “ace” is a title that is earned, not given, and that there are at most a dozen pitchers worthy of it at any given time.) Jones has been excellent and would be the favorite for National League Rookie of the Year if not for Shota Imanaga and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Clearly, these two have the potential to be at the top of this list sooner rather than later.
Miller can lay claim to being one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. He gets overshadowed in the Mariners’ rotation, but is just shy of completing 200 career innings and has an ERA+ of 102 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.13. Not bad for a former fourth-round pick. Woo is about to return from right elbow inflammation. He was surprisingly effective last season despite having one of the dumbest platoon splits you’ll ever see in an 18-8 game span: He held righties to a .495 OPS while lefties torched him to a .928 OPS.
Greene can certainly identify with Skenes. He was also an early draft pick with a big arm and higher expectations. Maybe Greene’s career hasn’t panned out the way the Reds had hoped (even with a strong opening this season, he’s boasting a career 101 ERA+), but he’s been an above-average starter and is in the midst of his best season. the date. Abbott has been a sensation since arriving last June. In his first 28 starts, he recorded a 121 ERA+ and a 2.82 strikeout-walk ratio.
With how well the Guardians opened the season, you’d have reason to think they’re getting a lot from Williams, Bibee and fellow young starter Logan Allen. Except they’re not — Williams hasn’t pitched because of an injury, and Bibee and Allen have so far performed below replacement level. Who knows. We’re not too worried about any of the three long-term, as we think each of them should establish themselves as mid-rotation starters or better.
There was a time when it looked like Gore wouldn’t have a big league career after developing the yips. Fortunately, those days are behind us. He has been an above-average starter since joining the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade, striking out more than 10 in nine innings while walking fewer than four. Parker, also a lefty, performed well in his first five starts. We’d like to see more from him before we fully buy in, but he did a great job climbing ladders with a low-90s fastball, a curveball and a splitter that generated an impressive 45.7% whiff rate.
This classification is based entirely on potential. We believe better days await Bradley, who racked up a 75 ERA+ last season despite striking out more than 11 batters in nine innings and showing above-average control. Baz, on the other hand, hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2022 because of elbow issues. He recently began a rehabilitation mission and could return later this month. If Bradley and Baz stay healthy, they are a good bet to top this ranking.
This is a heavy duo. Harrison is a former top prospect who performed well in the bigs, accumulating an ERA+ of 112 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.26 in his first 79 2/3 innings. Black debuted last week. He’s a low-position righty who likes to spam opponents with sweepers.
Pfaadt did not maintain the dynamism he enjoyed last October. He did, however, improve his ERA and his strikeout-to-walk ratio, in part because he did a better job of teasing out-of-zone swings. Cecconi doesn’t generate much buzz or buzz, but the underlying metrics suggest he’s performed better than his bloated ERA indicates. Stay tuned for that.
