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It doesn't really make a lot of sense for the Pittsburgh Pirates to trade Paul Skenes , but that isn't stopping teams from trying to pry the young pitcher away from Pittsburgh.
Skenes, who won the NL Rookie of the Year award and was named an All-Star and All-MLB First Team selection last season, has been the subject of trade rumors since he began dominating on the mound in the majors. And the r umors have only grown louder as the Pirates , who finished last in the NL Central last year, have fared even worse in 2025.
At 28-41, Pittsburgh is 13.5 games back from the top of the division and seven games back from the Cincinnati Reds , the fourth-placed team in the NL Central. As a result, and with little confidence that the long-suffering Pirates organization will be able to effectively build around Skenes, fans and analysts have continued to theorize that a contending team will eventually put together a trade good enough for the Pirates to part with Skenes .
Teams reportedly think that , too.
"As we've written many times, the Pirates have no interest in trading Paul Skenes as this year's deadline," The Athletic's Jim Bowden wrote. "However, multiple GMs have told me that won't stop them from making serious offers to acquire him. And, if you're the Pirates, you have to listen because you have so many needs to fill — on your big-league team and also in your farm system. The return for Skenes in a trade would have to be even more than the haul the Nationals got for Juan Soto at the 2022 deadline. However, he is the best pitcher in baseball, with four more years of team control, so it arguably would be worth paying that type of package. I learned long ago in baseball … never say never."
As Bowden mentioned, the Pirates have a proverbial long runway in regards to Skenes' contract. He is in just his second year in MLB, meaning he has one more pre-arbitration season before three arbitration years. The earliest Skenes could become an unrestricted free agent and test the open market is after the 2029 season.
In 14 starts this season, Skenes has a 1.88 ERA , NL-best 0.835 WHIP, and 92 strikeouts. He has a 4-6 record.
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