The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced the club has selected right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 First-Year Player Draft.

The 21-year-old Skenes was rated by MLB Pipeline as the No. 1 prospect in this year’s draft while also being tabbed by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect.

Coming into the draft, Baseball America rated Skenes as having the “Best Fastball”, “Best Breaking Ball”, third in “Best Control” and fifth in “Best Changeup” in this year’s college class. Baseball America also rated Skenes as the “Best Athlete” among this year’s college class.

Skenes went 13-2 with five shutouts, two complete games, a 1.69 ERA (122.2ip/23er), SEC-record 209 strikeouts, 20 walks and .165 batting average against in 19 starts for the NCAA-champion LSU Tigers this past season.

Skenes took home 2023 D1Baseball Player-of-the-Year honors and was the SEC Pitcher-of-the-Year. He also won the College World Series Most Outstanding Player award after going 1-0 with a 1.15 ERA and 21 strikeouts in two starts in Omaha.

The 2023 first-team Baseball America All-American also took home this year’s Dick Howser Award (national college baseball player of the year) after finishing second in the nation in ERA (1.69), third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.45), and fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.28).

COURTESY MLB MEDIA RELATIONS, PITTSBURGH PIRATES & MLBpressbox.com