Pittsburgh Pirates starter Paul Skenes won the National League Rookie of the Year award on Monday night, helping himself financially in the process.

As a result of his win, Skenes received a full year of service despite not playing enough games to actually earn it on the field. All of this is part of the latest collective bargaining agreement and is designed to help major league-ready players reach the big leagues sooner.

MLBTrade Rumors did a great job of taking the complex system and breaking it down:

If a player is on certain top 100 prospect lists and is promoted early enough in the season to earn a full year of service, that player can earn his club a bonus draft pick based on award voting. On the other hand, if such a player is not promoted early enough to get a full year, but managed to finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting regardless, that player retroactively earns a full year of service .

Had Skenes been promoted earlier in the year, this award would have earned the Bucs an additional draft pick. But since he was retained in May, they were ineligible to receive that pick. Skenes, on the other hand, will now have a full year of service.

That means he’ll hit free agency a year earlier and be in line for a big payday a year earlier.

Skenes beat out Jackson Merrill (San Diego Padres) and Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee Brewers) for his award, becoming the fifth former no.

Skenes finished his rookie season at 11-3 with that 1.96 ERA. He struck out 170 batters in just 133.0 innings and looked every bit the part of an ace moving into 2025. Skenes made his major league debut in early May after just a handful of minor league starts and made its presence felt instantly. With Skenes and Jared Jones, the The pirates and their fans are finally looking to have some optimism going forward.

Luis Gil of the New York Yankees won the American League Rookie of the Year award.

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