After a brief lull, the hypothetical Paul Skenes trade conversations have kicked up again.
The Athletic ran a column from Jim Bowden investigating the idea of the Pittsburgh Pirates trading their burgeoning All-Star pitcher, potentially before he begins his third season of Major League Baseball.
The column showed up Wednesday, the day of Skenes’ most recent start — which I’m guessing is not a coincidence.
The recently turned 23-year-old right-hander went 6⅔ innings of shutout ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks. For a change, the Pirates got Skenes some run support in a 10-1 victory. Last season’s National League Rookie of the Year won a decision for the first time in over a month to improve to just 4-5 even with his 2.15 ERA (ninth in MLB) and his 0.92 WHIP (sixth in MLB).
Despite Ben Cherrington’s recent dismissal of any consideration related to a Skenes trade, Bowden insists it is something to consider.
“The problem for the Pirates — well, one of their problems — is that they don’t have a lot of valuable trade chips at the major- or minor-league level, they don’t have a stream of top prospects waiting in the wings to help the big-league club anytime soon, and they’ve established they don’t want to spend significant money in free agency,” Bowden opined. “Therefore, how do they expect to improve enough to contend? Perhaps trading Skenes isn’t as far-fetched as you’d think.”
Bowden would later add, “As agonizing as it would be for Pittsburgh fans, the Pirates’ best pathway back to respectability is probably to trade him.”
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However, there was a nugget of information from Bowden that I found interesting in this opening paragraph.
“The Pittsburgh Pirates have no plans to trade Paul Skenes,” Bowden said. “That’s what they’re saying publicly through general manager Ben Cherington and what they’re making clear to other teams behind the scenes. But that doesn’t mean they won’t listen to inquiries and perform their due diligence in case they’re overwhelmed by a franchise-changing offer.”
The first thing I took from that is, based on Bowden claiming that the Pirates are telling teams Skenes is not up for bid, that means teams are calling. That means the Skenes trade conversation isn’t just talk-show fodder and a way for Jeff Passan and Jon Heyman to get engagement on social media.
That means teams are actually asking.
The very notion of any franchise even being suspected of having a willingness to part with a gem of a talent like Skenes is an indictment of how the rest of the league perceives that franchise.
As I’ve previously stated, this Skenes trade talk is an utterly illogical premise born from a completely logical conclusion. That conclusion is: The Pirates are willing to trade anyone because they are unwilling to pay top dollar to anyone.
Second, it’s clear a former GM such as Bowden is just as dubious of Cherington’s decree that Skenes is off the table as most hardened and embittered Pittsburgh baseball fans are. Anyone who holds a title within the Pirates’ front office is simply not to be believed about anything, anytime, under any circumstances.
So, Cherington’s quote means very little.
Again, to stress the point, a Skenes trade anytime soon is highly unlikely. But if people within baseball are apparently calling with hopes of speaking such a scenario into existence, that’s worth discussing.
However, listing the Chicago Cubs as potentially the team that could position itself as the best suitor for Skenes is not.
Regardless of whatever boatload of talent Chicago could offer the Buccos in a swap for Skenes, you can’t trade a guy like that in the division. You just can’t. He’ll haunt you for a decade.
Even the Pirates can’t be that stup…
Wait. Let me follow my own advice. It’s the Pirates. Anything is possible.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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