Pittsburgh Pirates fans were shocked to hear the whispers that Paul Skenes might want to play meaningful baseball for another team! And if you are a Pirates fan, it’s not tough to imagine a 23-year-old, right-handed winner of Rookie of the Year 2024 and the NL Cy Young heading elsewhere—not just to get paid more, but to have more chances at winning. Because one thing is for sure, getting Bob Nutting to build a team around his franchise player seems far from happening.

And insiders like Trevor Plouffe don’t get why the decision is so difficult to make for the Pittsburgh front office.

“I mean, it’s not a difficult decision, but they’re making it a very difficult decision, and they are going to get peppered with it. I’m not talking about Paul Skenes. I’m talking about the Pirates themselves. I mean, you get a talent like this, a guy that—you know, one of the only pitchers that commands an audience the way he does every single start. Like, you have to find a way to keep him. But it doesn’t seem like, you know, talk to any Pittsburgh Pirates fan, it doesn’t really seem like that is going to be the case…It could be the best rotation in baseball. And to have that at your fingertips, to have drafted and developed it, and to just, like, do nothing with it is sad. It’s sad for the city. It’s sad for your organization. I hope it changes. I don’t know how it would change. I think we would have to probably get new ownership.”

And well, what Trevor mentioned in the JM Baseball podcast makes sense. The problem that Plouffe and several others are saying is that it’s not talent, it’s money. Bob Nutting’s approach to payroll has left the team needing the bottom of the league year after year. Plus, with a 2025 payroll of just $87.6 million, 27th in MLB, and no history of significant spending, even a generational talent like Skenes, coming off a 1.97 ERA and 216-strikeout year, has little to no hope that key pieces would come to make a difference and contend to win.

And that might be wearing Skenes’ patience thin. Reports do mention that Skenes has made it clear to his teammates that he has “no confidence the Pirates ever are going to win” and is “hoping for a trade.” He is apparently eyeing the New York Yankees, a team with money and stability, and mostly depth to help him into the contendership.

Pittsburgh, after all, has had just four winning seasons and three playoff appearances since Barry Bonds! For now, Pittsburgh Pirates GM Ben Cherington has dismissed the Yankee trade rumors, “I do dismiss it, but I understand it. What matters most to him is what matters to us—winning more games. That’s the focus.”

He said that Skenes will be a Pirate in 2026. But without the payroll investment and a winning environment, keeping a star pitcher happy is going to be an uphill battle. But for now, even he is dismissing the rumors.

Paul Skenes on Yankee rumors and future in Pittsburgh

Sure, everyone thinks Paul Skenes probably has one foot out the door, but not him. He silenced and dismissed the rumors about him leaving for the Bronx. He mentioned to the reporters recently, “I don’t know where that came from. The goal is to win, and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”

He dismissed the reports that he told his teammates that he wanted a trade even. “The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the 26 guys that change that.” And while he is focused on winning, the Pirates made a decision that could help shake things up.

They replaced pitching coach Oscar Marin, despite a staff that ranked seventh in the MLB ERA, with the former Houston Astros coach Bill Murphy. Now is their franchise cornerstone, Skenes, okay with this? At first, he was worried, thinking Murphy might see his role as a stepping stone, but now, a call later with him, things have changed.

Murphy had personally called Skenes before accepting the job and again afterwards, ensuring to make it clear that he was committed to building a championship-caliber staff in Pittsburgh. “He told me he was that second guy,” Skenes said. Well, talk is cheap, but he chose to come to Pittsburgh, and that says a lot.

That reassurance matters a plenty in the city where payroll constraints have limited the team’s ability to surround the stars with the talent needed. Murphy’s arrival and Skenes’ reassurance do give fans some hope—that maybe, finally, the future is a little brighter than the past.