Cherington explained why the Pirates stuck to a plan with Skenes, whose fastball touched 102 mph on the radar gun against the Baltimore Orioles prospects on Thursday night at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla. After pitching 122 2/3 innings over 19 starts in leading LSU to the College World Series championship and signing for a record $9.2 million bonus, Skenes pitched 6 2/3 innings over three minor league levels last summer.

So, the point the Pirates continue to drive home is that they want him to adjust to pitching every five days before promoting him to the majors. In three innings over two Grapefruit League games, Skenes allowed one run — an Amed Rosario homer — on three hits without a walk while striking out three. He also had a pair of strikeouts in the Spring Breakout prospect showcase against the Orioles.

“I think we said when we shared that he was not going to make the team on Opening Day, which he’s not, I said then he’s mostly going to tell us,” Cherington said during the Pirates-Detroit Tigers game. “Some of this is just that we really want to do everything we can to put Paul in the position to help the Pirates as much as possible for as long as possible, and some of that in his first professional season in making sure that he’s got an opportunity to check some boxes that he hasn’t quite had the opportunity to do: He hasn’t made a start and come back on normal rest. He hasn’t built his volume up yet inside a professional season. He’s done it in college but not inside a professional season. He hasn’t touched Triple-A. So there’s these boxes we’d like to see him check. As he checks those boxes, mostly he’s going to tell us.”

Cherington also defended the decision to sign German, who pitched the 24th perfect game in MLB history last June 28 against Oakland but was suspended 81 games in 2019-20 for allegations of domestic violence and placed on leave last season to seek treatment for alcohol abuse after a clubhouse confrontation with New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

The Pirates signed German — a 31-year-old right-hander who was 31-28 with a 4.41 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 112 games over six seasons for the Yankees — to a minor league contract for $1.25 million with performance bonuses that includes a non-roster invitation to major league camp. The deal includes a club option at $2.25 million plus performance bonuses in 2025.

“This was a case where, as everybody knows, we were very focused on starting pitching all offseason,” Cherington said. “He was on a very long list of starting pitchers that we started looking at early in the offseason. In his case, there was a lot of work we needed to do. At least on a couple of occasions in Domingo’s past, he’s said some things, behaved in ways that are not consistent with our values and are not things we would condone. So we needed to really get to know him better, understand more clearly what happened in those incidents in the past, in as much detail as we could, and then also just understand clearly just where he’s at now, the work he’s done to grow from those incidents to put himself in a better position as a player and as a person.”

Cherington said the Pirates did extensive background research, speaking with German and his family, as well as “people that have been around him in the past” to determine his growth as a person and a pitcher.

“It took a long time,” Cherington said. “We ultimately got to the point where we felt like giving him an opportunity in a Pirates uniform made sense, that we could be a team that could help him and that he had done the work to earn that chance. It’s a minor league contract, so there will be some more earning to do.”

Cherington noted that German will need time to build up his pitch volume, so he’s weeks away from playing let alone appearing in a major league game. Cherington indicated that German would likely start at Triple-A Indianapolis.

Not only does German have a perfect game on his resume, but he also went 18-4 with a 4.03 ERA and 1.15 WHIP while averaging 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings in 143 innings over 27 appearances (24 starts) in 2019 before his suspension.

German, who was 5-7 with a 4.56 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in 108 2/3 innings over 20 games (19 starts) last year, ranked in the 92nd percentile in chase rate (33.6%) and 79th in whiff rate (30.3%), per Statcast. Opponents batted .174 against his curveball, which German threw on 40.9% of his pitches last season.

“He’s had stretches with the Yankees, on the big stage, in a very tough division against tough lineups where he’s been a very strong major league starting pitcher going back several years now,” Cherington said. “He pitched a perfect game last year, so it wasn’t that long ago. The talent is certainly there. The thing he’s always done, he’s a really good strike-thrower. He’s in the strike zone. He’s always had a really good curveball, good feel for spinning and moving that curveball around, and he has some deception. The fastball has always played above the velocity. We’ll just have to get him built back up and try to get him in the best spot we can in Indy and give him a chance to go pitch.”

Cherington admitted that adding Taylor on a one-year, $4 million major league deal so late in spring training is a challenge because the Pirates break camp next Tuesday and play their season opener at Miami on March 28. That doesn’t leave the 32-year-old Taylor many games to get at-bats and work on his timing at the plate before the regular season.

“It’s going to be tight,” Cherington said. “It’s one of those things, where because he’s on a major league contract, we have to do the best we can to get him ready.”

While Cherington emphasized the need for “more than one center field-quality defender” at PNC Park because of its cavernous left field, he also expressed excitement about what Taylor brings with his bat.

Although Taylor hit a career-best 21 home runs and had 51 RBIs last season for the Minnesota Twins, he had 130 strikeouts against 26 walks and ranked in the third percentile in K rate (33.5%). It was the fifth time in 10 seasons that Taylor has had a strikeout rate higher than 30%, but he was at 27.3% in 2021 and 23.9% in 2022 with Kansas City.

“He’s struck out less than that before,” Cherington said. “His strikeout rate spiked up a little bit last year, so maybe a bit of an anomaly, but he certainly has power. The defense is going to be there.”

Taylor’s arrival adds another new twist to the Pirates’ outfield, as Bryan Reynolds started the past two games in right field. Cherington indicated that with Taylor in center, Jack Suwinski could see time at all three outfield spots, giving Pirates manager Derek Shelton more power in the batting order and positional flexibility in the outfield.

“To be clear, obviously, ultimately Shelty makes out the lineup,” Cherington said. “I think it just gives him more options in terms of how he deploys the outfielders. But we’re still going to see Suwinski in center field plenty. I think it just gives us better options to put together really strong outfield defense alignment.”