Skenes beat outfielders Jackson Merrill of the San Diego Padres and Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers to become the first Pirate to win Rookie of the Year since Jason Bay in 2004 and the first NL starting pitcher to take home the award since Jacob deGrom in 2014.

Jackson Merrill did not care about the NL Rookie of the Year. The Padres’ 21-year-old center fielder made that clear any time he was asked about the award. So this may be harder on his teammates or the San Diego fanbase than Merrill himself: Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes was named the NL’s top rookie as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America began rolling out the sport’s major awards this