MLB · P · Pittsburgh Pirates
Paul Skenes
B/T R/R · 6' 6" · 260 lb · born Fullerton, CA, USA · age 24 · draft 2023 rd 1 · played P 32 · MLB debut 2024-05-11
712 batters faced scored this season His season card →
On the record · career milestone this season
500 career strikeouts — Fri, Jun 26 · night game vs. Cincinnati Reds The scorecard → · The write-up →
The card rack
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
FlagshipPaul Skenes #H165 · 2024 Topps Holiday · 501 recent sales 7N ▲0%
His flagship is his rookie — one card, one market.
Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-10-11 · paid links
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases. · Flagship = his most-traded card (the market’s reference); the rookie = the top card of his first card year. As of October 11, 2026 · trend is FVR's own nightly archive · prices via SportsCardsPro · what these terms mean
Scout’s note
A 24-year-old first-rounder from Fullerton, Skenes has 586 strikeouts in 87 MLB games — that is the whole story, and it is a remarkable one.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
We wrote about Skenes here — The Buzz September 12, 2026 · August 21, 2026 · August 13, 2026 · August 5, 2026 · and 2 more
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $7.58M
- Tax hit
- $7.58M
- Service time
- 3 yr 0 d
- Options left
- 3 / 3
The deal A1
On the sheet: A1 · agent WME Baseball
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Pittsburgh Pirates.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $1.08M
- Guaranteed
- $1.08M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Pre-Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Minimum | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Paul Skenes
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Paul Skenes cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
The Bureau on Paul Skenes
The scouting press, in their own words
Oregon State RHP Dax Whitney might not pitch much in 2027 recovering from elbow surgery, but scouts/analysts won’t forget what he did in 2025 and 2026. He’s the most impressive college pitcher since Paul Skenes. He goes No. 2 in today’s 2027 Mock Draft. https://t.co/DZ0rztKyTy
Umpire favor
-2.6 net runs over 31 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →