BRADENTON, Fla. >> Paul Skenes spent his rookie season dutifully following the Pittsburgh Pirates’ plan to bring their young ace along as slowly and safely as possible.

It worked. Maybe better than all involved imagined during an electrifying 2024 in which the towering right-hander started the All-Star Game and captured the National League Rookie of the Year award while becoming perhaps the game’s hottest young star in a decade.

It was an incredible ride to be sure. Yet when Skenes arrived this week for his second spring training, he did it with the kind of freedom he lacked a year ago.

Oh, and a couple of new pitches, too.

The 22-year-old is tinkering with adding a cutter and a running two-seam fastball to an arsenal that already includes a four-seamer that tops out north of 100 mph and a “splinker” that was one of the best put-away pitches in the majors in 2024.

“Just trying to create more swing decisions,” Skenes said.

Or, nondecisions.

Veteran second baseman Adam Frazier, who reunited with the Pirates last month, volunteered to be the first batter to face Skenes during a live batting practice on Saturday. The first pitch the left-handed hitting Frazier saw was a splinker that darted down and away while catching the outside corner of the strike zone.

Frazier’s bat never moved as the ball whizzed by, a pitch “nobody is going to do anything with,” as the former All-Star put it.

“If you hit it, you’re hitting it straight in the ground,” Frazier added. “So it’s like, ‘All right, strap it on and get ready.’”

Frazier, second baseman Nick Gonzales and first baseman Darick Hall all failed to make solid contact off Skenes during a 25-pitch session in which a few dozen fans surrounded one of the practice fields at Pirates City, many of them with their phones raised to capture the first glimpse of Skenes in 2025.