PITTSBURGH>> Paul Skenes didn’t love the plan the Pittsburgh Pirates laid out for him in the spring, the one designed to bring the most talented pitching prospect in a generation along slowly and protect the right arm on which so much relies. Looking back after a dazzling season in which the 22-year-old rookie somehow surpassed even the most outsized expectations — starting the All-Star Game, flirting with the occasional no-hitter, holding his own against the best in the game and making the Pirates matter in a way they haven’t in nearly a decade — Skenes admits the decision to have him begin his first full professional season in Triple-A so he could build his endurance up gradually was the right call.

“I don’t know if there can be a perfect plan, but it was just about perfectly put together,” Skenes said Wednesday.

And the best part? It’s almost over. While Skenes, who played college baseball at the Air Force Academy, is looking forward to his final start of the season when the Pirates visit Yankee Stadium this weekend, he’s already thinking about what awaits in 2025, when the training wheels might come off, or at least be loosened considerably.

“Next year, it’s hopefully just going to be ‘Take the ball and pitch,’” said Skenes, who is 11-2 with a 1.99 ERA in 22 starts in the majors. “So I’m looking forward to that.”

With good reason. The top overall pick in the 2023 draft arrived in the big leagues in May armed with a fastball that hit triple digits with regularity and a mustachioed swagger that turned his starts into what quickly became known locally as “Skenes Day.”

Though the mustache remains, other parts of Skenes’ approach have evolved. He worked diligently on developing his secondary pitches throughout the year, well aware the fastball/slider combination that served him so well at LSU wouldn’t be good enough to get out the best hitters on the planet.

It’s telling of Skenes’ development that on Sunday in Cincinnati, he mixed in a changeup occasionally, six of which served as strike three on a day he fanned nine batters to boost his season total to 167 in just 131 innings. Something that Pirates manager Derek Shelton called “rare” for a player in such an early stage of his career.

“You don’t see guys that are able to add to their arsenal their first year in the big leagues,” Shelton said. “They’re trying to throw strikes. They’re trying to execute pitches. They’re trying to get hitters out. Not that he wasn’t trying to do all those things, but to do it and add to it at the same time.”