What would it take for the Pirates to trade Paul Skenes? Plus: This uniform patch is absurd

The Padres began the year with a remarkable 7-0 winning streak. If they lose tonight against Chris Sale and the Braves, this losing streak will have neutralized that winning streak. 

Let’s frame it in a more concerning way: They started the season 14-3. They’re 13-18 since then. Is it time to start worrying about a team that looked unstoppable to start the season? 

Dennis Lin has six numbers here that tell a bit more in-depth story. The short version: Gavin Sheets’ first home run in last night’s extra-innings loss to the Blue Jays ended a 27-inning scoreless streak, and they scored just one run in each of the first three losses of the streak. They’re simply not hitting with runners in scoring position. 

They’re still six games over .500, but 27-21 isn’t what it used to be — at least not in this year’s NL West. They’re still just three games back (remember, the Dodgers had a four-game losing streak of their own recently, and the Giants and Diamondbacks are just 5-5 in their last 10). 

So it’s not insurmountable. But they need to pull out of the nosedive soon.

More on the walk-off: Nathan Lukes hit the walk-off single. Three-plus years ago, he nearly walked away from the game. 

From my latest column:

Trade Paul Skenes? The Pittsburgh Pirates should build around Paul Skenes. But they punted on an opportunity to do that last offseason, and the chances of owner Bob Nutting splurging this offseason are about as good as his team’s current playoff odds — 0.3 percent.

So, Skenes trade talk is percolating, in the media if not yet in reality. Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, when asked by reporters Thursday if the team is open to trading the 22-year-old, said, “No. It’s not at all part of the conversation.”

Still, the idea is fascinating, and for a team so far away from contention, perfectly rational, considering the risk of injury for any pitcher. But such a deal would require the Pirates to demonstrate three qualities they rarely display: nerve, creativity and savvy.

Among the obstacles to a Skenes trade: 

The status of Cherington — If Cherington is not going to be the GM beyond this season, then why the heck would Nutting trust him to move Skenes? Cherington, following the dismissal of manager Derek Shelton on May 8, might only be safe because teams generally refrain from changing heads of baseball operations in the middle of the season.

Thus, Cherington will also preside over the draft, a daunting thought considering that since taking over in November 2019, he has yet to produce a homegrown star position player. From 2020 to ‘22, the Pirates took second baseman Nick Gonzales, catcher Henry Davis and infielder Termarr Johnson while picking in the top seven. To this point at least, none has made anything close to an impact.

The Pirates are 5-8 under Don Kelly since starting the season 12-26 under Derek Shelton. Farfetched as it might sound, they could save Cherington by turning around their season. But if Nutting is even thinking about trading Skenes, he would figure to leave the task to the next GM.

Skenes’ extreme value — Think about it: What would even be a fair return for Skenes? In 2022, outfielder Juan Soto was under club control for three pennant races when he and first baseman Josh Bell brought the Washington Nationals a monstrous return from the San Diego Padres — outfielder James Wood, left-hander MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams; outfielder Robert Hassell III, pitcher Jarlin Susana and first baseman Luke Voit.

Skenes is under club control for five pennant races. To justify the move, the Pirates would need to beat the return for Soto, and not by a little. Even if contenders were willing to empty their farm systems for Skenes, as they almost certainly would be, how many would even have enough talent to make a deal happen?

More notes here.

On FM 916, about a half-mile west of State Highway 171 in Texas, there’s a three-acre plot of land. The last time I saw it, I noticed one of the oak trees had been cut down. That’s a bummer, because that tree was third base. That trio of oaks were where I fell in love with the game of baseball. 

I’m not sure I would have thought to even ask the question, much less answer it, if not for Tyler Kepner’s story today about Tigers first-base coach Anthony Iapoce. 

“Where did it start?” is a question Iapoce makes it a point to ask players. It’s one he has asked himself, too — the 51-year-old keeps a Google Maps printout of where it began for him: playing stickball at 42nd Street and 25th Avenue in Queens. 

During his time with the Cubs and Rangers, Iapoce would have one player per week make a presentation to the rest of the team about that place — wherever it was for them. It’s remarkable how well the question works to help players open up a bit; to go back to the time when the game was fun, before the stakes got high. Here, let Kris Bryant explain it: 

“Back then, there wasn’t a care in the world. You’re playing baseball with your friends, you get orange slices and Capri Sun after the game. It brings back that carefree feeling, like, ‘Man, this is a pretty cool game we get to do.’ It kind of helps shift the (mindset) from ‘I’m such a loser, I’m the worst player in the world.’”

It is often easy to forget the humanity of the superstars we watch on TV each night. Kudos to Iapoce for a cool grounding technique, and good work by Kepner to share it with the rest of us. 

More Kepner: His “Sliders” column starts with a surging Rhys Hoskins and ends with a tribute to George Wendt, who passed away this week. 

When MLB began introducing uniform patches in 2023, everyone hated it. 

And I try not to speak for “everyone,” but unless you work for an MLB team in the “get us more sponsors” department, or for one of the companies whose logo was about to be on the sleeve of big leaguers — ”Look, look! That’s us!” — I feel confident in guessing … you hated it. 

They’re all bad, to varying degrees. But a few teams made sure to tout how selective they would be, and how the patches would be in team colors, unobtrusive. “You’ll hardly notice it (except please do notice it a little bit, because we need to show the company that their ad dollars provide value).”

Other teams just decided that aesthetics didn’t pay bills. One such team is the Seattle Mariners. Just look at this patch.

Anyway, in a genre that is uniformly terrible (pun begrudgingly noted but unintentional), these have somehow descended to a new depth. Nothing is sacred but profit. Rinse, repeat. 

More uniforms: How are this year’s City Connects landing? Our panel rates and discusses.