After a difficult season that saw the Pirates flash signs of life in the first half with a 48-48 record before crashing to a 28-38 record after Trey Burke Jersey the All-Star break, Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington discu sed a few of the clubs key players as they team now looks ahead toward the 2025 campaign and the coming offseason. Chief among those was like NL Rookie of the Year favorite . For all of the clubs faults this year, Skenes was the most obvious bright spot as he was nothing short of dominant practically from the moment he made his big league debut back in May. In 23 starts from then on, Skenes posted an eye-popping 1.96 ERA with an excellent 2.45 FIP. With a 33.1% strikeout rate acro s his 133 innings of work, Skenes was perhaps the most dominant pitcher in all of MLB this year. The one flaw in is otherwise dominant rookie campaign was volume, as Skenes threw just 160 1/3 innings of work in total this year between the major and minor leagues. That includes eight starts where Skenes failed to pa s 80 pitches in his outing. Fortunately, that seeming unwillingne s to have Skenes pitch deep into games faded as his season continued, with the right-hander ultimately throwing more than 100 pitches in six of his 23 big league outings. Whats more, Cherington told reporters (including ) that the hard-throwing righty could find himself unleashed completely next year. Cherington indicated that the Pirates do not currently plan on any sort of hard limits on Skeness innings or pitch counts headed into 2025, leaving the door open for Skenes to post an even stronger season next year should he be able to post something close to this seasons results over a full slate of 30 starts. The righty figures to headline Pittsburghs rotation next year, followed by and . Theres some uncertainty at the back of the clubs rotation behind those three, but , Luis L. Ortiz, and could all be in the mix for starts as well. Looking beyond the rotation, Cherington notably also offered a vote of confidence in longtime closer , who struggled badly throughout the 2024 campaign and was eventually in late August. Bednars results improved over the month of September but his peripheral numbers remained shaky, as he posted a solid 3.38 ERA but walked (ten) more batters than he struck out (nine) acro s 10 2/3 innings of work. That left Bednar with an overall ERA of 5.77 on the year, and while his 4.80 FIP offered some reason for optimism even that figure was still worse than average as it was held back by a 10.7% walk rate. Given Bednars brutal performance and a fairly considerable $6.6MM salary projection for next season courtesy of , it wouldnt be a shock to see the club explore moving on from Bednar this winter. If that po sibility is on the table, however, Cherington did not acknowledge it. On the contrary, Stumpf notes that Cherington suggested Bednar could even recapture the closers role in time for 2025. Even in spite of Bednars poor performance, such an outcome would hardly be a shock. After all, the club has few proven relievers under team control besides and Bednar dominated to the tune of a 2.25 ERA with a 2.56 FIP over the 2021-23 seasons. If Bednar can even come close to that sort of production next year, hed be well worth the $6.6MM investment via arbitration. Now turning to the positional side, Cherington also provided a small update ( ) on third baseman . A former top-of-the-line infield prospect who enjoyed something of a breakout campaign in 2023 where he paired excellent defense with a roughly league average at, Hayes appeared sure to join Skenes, Jones, and among the clubs core this season. Instead, injuries derailed Hayess year completely. He was limited to just 96 games by a disc problem in his back that sent him to the injured list twice this year and left him playing through pain for the majority of the year when he was on the field. The injury marred campaign led to disastrous results, as Hayes hit just .233/.283/.290 in 396 trips to the plate alongside defensive numbers that were a far cry from previous seasons. Difficult as 2024 was for Hayes, however, Cherington expre sed optimism about the infielders status as he looked ahead to 2025. The GM acknowledged that theres always some level of concern regarding an injured player until hes once again on the field, but added that he believes the club is better informed about Hayess injury situation and that the third baseman is excited to return to action in 2025. When Hayes was unable to take the field this year, and were the clubs primary options at the hot corner this year. Both players are in line to return to the club next year and could continue backing up the position in the event Hayes struggles to stay on the field in 2025 as well. Kristaps Porzingis Jersey