Some of the best pitches in the history of baseball just kind of happen.
Mariano Rivera never intended to learn a cutter, and yet a game of catch where his ball started cutting turned him into the greatest closer to ever step on a mound.
That's how it worked for Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes and his Splinker.
The pitch, a mix between a splitter and a sinker, was born when Skenes was still in college at LSU.
It has the nasty drop of a splitter but more of the velocity of a sinker.
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And when Skenes joined Mookie Betts on the Dodgers' star's podcast, Betts took out a baseball and had Skenes show his grip.
In the end, it's not that far off a splitter, but Skenes emphasized that he puts more pressure on his index finger to create that tailing action of a standard sinker.
Have a look:
Paul Skenes reveals the grip for his viral 'Splinker' pitch 👀 pic.twitter.com/fnzd17mP4B
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 3, 2025
Whatever the grip, it's a brilliant pitch.
What is a Splinker?
A Splinker is a baseball pitch, a cross between a splitter and a sinker.
It's thrown by Pirates ace Paul Skenes, along with Phillies closer Jhoan Duran.
The pitch-tracking website Baseball Savant doesn't have Splinker as a pitch classification. It shows Skenes as throwing both a splitter and a sinker, but not the combo pitch.
His sinker metrics there align most readily with the Splinker, with it listing Skenes' average sinker velocity at 97.7 miles per hour. His average splitter velocity in that data is 93.7 miles per hour.
Batters are hitting .197 against the pitch listed as Skenes' sinker
The Splinker conceptually puts a lot of stress on the arm. A splitter was always considered a risky pitch for the elbow, and putting more velocity into a similar group isn't without risk.
But for Skenes, it has all worked out so far. He has the second-lowest ERA to this point in his career in MLB history behind just the legendary Vida Blue.
And he's done it by being dominant with all his pitches, including the famed Splinker.
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