Skenes could be MLB's ticket to Gen Z

BRADENTON, Fla.

There are times when Paul Skenes, the 22-year-old, cant escape Paul Skenes, baseballs Next Big Thing.

It happens randomly and without warning.

The reigning National League Rookie of the Year ran into former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman at the Super Bowl last month.

The now-retired three-time Super Bowl champion told Skenes he was a fan.

Eyebrows raised and caught maybe more than a little off guard, Skenes quickly replied same.

A few days later, Skenes was minding his own business in the Bradenton-Sarasota airport after arriving for his second spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates when he caught a glimpse of his mustachioed face staring back at him.

It wasnt a mirror.

It was one of the countless ads in the area featuring the flame-throwing right-hander who turned every one of his first 23 major league appearances (24 if you count the 2024 All-Star Game, which he started) into appointment viewing.

Throw in his upcoming cover appearance on the popular video game franchise MLB The Show and his recent guest spot on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and at times it can seem like hes everywhere even if he believes hes not.

If Skenes is being honest and the former Air Force cadet is nothing if not pathologically sincere hes still getting used to the outsized attention hes commanded since making his debut last May.

Yet, it also beats the alternative.

If his now fully-bearded mug isnt plastered throughout Floridas Sunshine Coast this time next year, hell know why.

If I start sucking, my photo is not going to be (there), he told The Associated Press recently.

A fresh Face? Skenes understands in a way that belies his age that none of the trappings of his already remarkable success the top overall pick in the 2023 draft finished third in last years NL Cy Young voting too even though he didnt play a full season will stick if he doesnt find a way to build on one of the most remarkable rookie years in a generation.

Sure, the hype is nice.

And yes, hes learned to lean into it a little bit.

Its kind of hard not to when a baseball card featuring a patch of your jersey becomes arguably the hottest collectible in recent memory, your girlfriend happens to be one of the most followed athlete/influencers in the country and the stands are filled with little kids sporting No.

30 T-shirts and donning plastic mustaches of their own whenever you go to work.

Skenes finds himself at the confluence of the game and the culture at large.

From a fastball that regularly hits triple digits to a splinker borne out of experimentation, he has the kind of stuff that sends baseball purists scrambling for superlatives.

He couples it with a mix of swagger and savvy that could in theory make him Major League Baseballs first Gen Z crossover star.

Its a lot to take in for someone who was a late-bloomer by baseball standards, not truly coming into his own until his sophomore year at Air Force, where the former catcher developed so rapidly on the mound he made the difficult but necessary decision to transfer to LSU.

Ask Skenes if he wants to be the face of the game and he deflects.

Hes been doing this as a pro less than two years.

That kind of honorific, for the moment anyway, is reserved for the Shohei Ohtanis, Aaron Judges and Mike Trouts of the world, childhood idols quickly becoming peers.

Those guys have earned the right.

He hasnt.

Not yet anyway.

Besides, that stuff takes energy frankly, Skenes said flatly..

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