Master · 2024-present · right-handed
Paul Skenes
The modern phenom whose splinker, a pitch he found by accident, is already one of the best in baseball.
Signature pitchSplinker
Skenes reached the majors in 2024 and was the NL Rookie of the Year that fall. His signature is the "splinker," a sinker-splitter hybrid his catcher named, thrown hard with splitter-like dive off a power four-seam look. He still thinks of it as a sinker.
The signature pitch
A "splinker," held with a light two-seam split rather than a deep splitter wedge, fired hard off the same power four-seam look. A loose, low-spin grip gives it heavy, late drop, deeper than a normal splitter, with arm-side run into right-handers; it leaves the hand on nearly the same path as the fastball, then falls off the table.
He discovered the modern version by feel: the grip did not change, but the release and the feel at release did, on one random throw.
The mental edge
Skenes leans on deception by sameness, the splinker emerging on the same arm slot and release as his four-seam so hitters cannot tell the rising fastball from the diving hybrid out of the hand. He treats it as a confidence pitch, reaching for it in the highest-leverage counts and using it differently every outing.
“I still think of it as a sinker. It’s funny to see guys swing at fastballs in the dirt.”
The lesson, on film
College aces show their grips
NCAA Baseball’s grip tour — Chase Dollander, Paul Skenes, Jac Caglianone and Rhett Lowder showing how they actually hold the ball.
“Take a look at these aces' pitch grips: Chase Dollander, Paul Skenes, Jac Caglianone, and Rhett Lowder.”
Original post, embedded from TikTok and credited — not rehosted.
The record
He reached the majors in the spring of 2024 and was the National League Rookie of the Year by fall — the record so far is short because the career is, and the splinker is the reason everyone expects the file to grow.
The numbers live with the record-keepers.
The record is told here the way the rest of the atlas is told: in prose, each claim confidence-labeled and one click from its source. Where reputation and record disagree, the gap is shown, not smoothed over.