The top overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft, Paul Skenes, revealed just how helpful girlfriend Olivia Dunne has been in navigating the days leading up to his big league debut on Saturday.
Skenes, who has been dominating the minor leagues, has generated a lot of chatter throughout baseball as one of the top pitching prospects in the past few years and will make his first start in The Show for the Pirates against the Cubs at 4 p.m. ET.
Dunne, the LSU gymnast and social media star, has been there to help him with the mounting pressure, as he told MLB Network on Friday night.
“It’s been great, she’s helped me in a lot of ways in terms of managing all the hype I guess, if you will, and how to manage everything that goes around being a pro athlete because she’s kinda lived it. So it’s been great,” Skenes said one day before his debut.
This season, Skenes has held a 0.99 ERA for 45 strikeouts across 27 1/3 innings and seven starts in the Pirates’ minor league system, the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.
On Saturday, he will be going up against the Cubs’ Justin Steele, who has held an impressive 0.96 ERA across 9 1/3 innings in two starts.
In April, Dunne, who has been in the spotlight for a while as a senior gymnast at LSU, watched her teammates as they guided the school to their first all-around national championship.
Skenes won a national title with LSU in 2023 and took home the Most Outstanding Player award at the College World Series.
Dunne holds an extra year of eligibility left due to the COVID-19 pandemic but has not announced any future plans publicly.
She has been a big name in the name, image and likeness (NIL) space with an estimated value of $3.7 million, according to On3, and she has partnered with several brands such as Accelerator Energy Drink, American Eagle, Forever 21, Motorola and Nautica.
Dunne was also featured as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in 2023.
NEWS CREDIT
