Paul Skenes splinker evolution

The “splinker.” Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

It’s the signature pitch for a guy whose fastball can touch 102 mph, to give you some context as to just how devastating his combination split-finger and sinker has become.

But how did Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes learn the pitch, and when did he begin to throw it?

Well, it wasn’t exactly planned.

“The Draft came, and I got shut down, basically, after the College World Series,” the flamethrowing Pirates right-hander said on Thursday during an appearance on MLB Central, MLB Network’s weekday morning show.

“Then I started throwing again, getting ramped up to throw in games after the Draft. I started playing catch one day, and basically it accidentally came off my index finger [as opposed to the middle finger] and moved how it moves now. And I was basically like, ‘That was good, I’m gonna keep trying to do that.'”

It was so good that it’s been a big element to Skenes’ campaign to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. In 20 Major League starts so far, he’s posted a 2.10 ERA with a franchise rookie-record 151 strikeouts over 120 innings for Pittsburgh.

Skenes went on to discuss various other topics, including what he likes to do on his off-days, LSU football and much more. But the legend of the splinker took center stage, much like Skenes has since being called up to make his MLB debut on May 11.

Skenes described concisely what the pitch was like when he first started throwing it at LSU before the epiphany.

“It was fine, I didn’t throw it a whole lot in-game,” Skenes said. “It was fine in college, like, whatever.”

“Whatever” quickly turned into a nightmare for big league hitters, and the sensational splinker could be stymieing them for many years to come.