Paul Skenes

Paul Skenes is the most collected young arm in baseball — the flame-throwing Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander who went #1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft out of LSU and won 2024 NL Rookie of the Year after one of the most dominant debut seasons in modern history. His flagship rookie year is 2024, and his 2024 cards anchor the entire market.

The path to the Pirates. Skenes didn’t start at LSU. He began his college career at the Air Force Academy as a two-way player before transferring to LSU, where he was moved to a pitching-only role and quickly became the ace of a national-championship-caliber staff. His 2023 junior season at LSU is one of the most decorated in recent college baseball history — dominant enough that the Pirates made him the unquestioned #1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and evaluators considered him the safest top-of-the-draft arm in years.

A fast, loud debut. Pittsburgh didn’t leave him in the minors long. Skenes made his MLB debut in May 2024 and was an immediate sensation — a fastball that sits in the upper velocity tier of any starter in baseball, paired with an unusually deep and hard-moving secondary mix for a rookie. He was an All-Star in that same debut season and closed it out as the National League’s unanimous Rookie of the Year. Very few pitchers arrive with that much helium already attached to a single rookie card class, which is a big part of why his 2024 cards move the way they do. He followed it by winning the 2025 NL Cy Young Award — the first player since Dwight Gooden in 1984-85 to take Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young in consecutive seasons. Source: Paul Skenes on Wikipedia — first overall pick in the 2023 draft out of LSU, MLB debut 11 May 2024, 2024 NL Rookie of the Year, 2025 NL Cy Young.

His cards span the modern brands: Bowman (the prospect line — his 1st Bowman is 2023 Bowman Draft BD-14, with Chrome BDC-14 and the marquee CDA-PS Chrome Prospect Autograph, all issued before his MLB debut and so not RC-logo eligible even though they top his open market; note 2024 Bowman Chrome #31 is a different, RC-flagged card), plus Topps flagship and Topps Chrome — where the RC-logo 2024 Topps Chrome Update (#USC27, #USC88) and 2024 Topps Update (#US100) rookies live — and Topps Now moment cards printed to order around specific games. Topps holds the current exclusive MLB license, so every one of his officially licensed cards — rookie or otherwise — runs through a Topps-family set; there’s no competing MLB-licensed brand to check. There’s no vintage here: everything is 2023–2024 forward, and 2025 is the first “not a rookie, but still current” year in his catalog.

Where to go next:

• Paul Skenes rookie cards — the ones that matter.
• What is a Paul Skenes card worth? — live values.
• Autographs & top cards — his signed cards.
• Topps Now moment cards — his print-to-order chase cards.
• Skenes cards by year: 2024 vs 2025 — which year to buy, and where the cheap ones are.
• Where to buy Paul Skenes cards — the marketplaces compared and which card to click.
• Collecting Skenes cards — is his rookie a smart buy?