"Not going to call Skenes if Livvy Dunne can't be there" - Podcaster Joey jokes Pirates is holding onto Paul Skenes until GF's gymnastic season wraps
Despite pitching incredibly well down in the minors, Paul Skenes awaits a call to the majors. Joey from Baseball is Dead podcast has an answer to it, and it has something to do with Skenes' girlfriend Olivia Dunne.
Dunne is in her senior year, competing for the LSU Tigers in the NCAA Championship in Fort Worth, Texas. Answering fan queries about Skenes not getting a promotion to the majors, Joey jokingly said:
"They're not going to call Skenes up if Livvy Dunne can't be there."
Apart from being a gymnast, Olivia Dunne boasts an immense social media following, with over $10 million followers from Instagram and TikTok combined. Her incredible following has helped her grab multimillion-dollar NIL deals, and as per On3, she's the highest-earning college female athlete.
Joey may be referring to the fact that the Pittsburgh Pirates may be holding Skenes' call up so that they can have his girlfriend, Dunne, in attendance, helping their attendance and viewership numbers.
Assuming it has some bearing on it, for context, LSU's NCAA Championship game is on Saturday So, going by it, expect a call-up for Paul Skenes in the coming week.
Pirates' GM explains why Paul Skenes isn't in majors despite stellar outings
There's no denying that Paul Skenes is giving his best in the minors, holding a scoreless streak since the start of the season. He has pitched 12.2 innings, and in only one game, his latest start against St. Paul at Victory Field, he has gone deeper than 3.0 innings.
Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington talked about the Skenes' progress in the minors during a 93.7 The Fan appearance last weekend. He said that the club is treading 2023 No. 1 overall pick's workload carefully.
“We don’t want to go from 0 to 100 right away,” Cherington said. “Paul’s so important to us long term, so we want to be really thoughtful about that.”
It boils down to the fact that Skenes' is more acclimatized to throwing around 3–4 innings per outing as opposed to a major league starter average of 6.0 innings. The Pirates will thereby try to get Skenes up to that mark before calling him to the majors.