Batting Around: Should the Pirates trade Paul Skenes?

Throughout the season, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we discussed Rafael Devers and the Red Sox’s first base situation. This week we’re going to tackle Paul Skenes as a trade candidate.

Should the Pirates trade Paul Skenes?

Dayn Perry: No, and it’s absurd that this faux topic has entered the baseball discourse. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball and he has just a bit more than a year of MLB service time. You do not trade a player like Paul Skenes at this early juncture of his career. You appreciate the massive levels of surplus value he provides, and you build around him. There’s no realistic trade package for a Skenes. To repeat, he doesn’t even have two years of MLB service time. If you trade a player that good with that much team control remaining, then you have no business running or owning an MLB franchise. There’s no room for “just asking questions” or playing devil’s advocate on this topic. It’s a flat no.

R.J. Anderson: This is the kind of scenario that’s interesting to game out, but that has zero chance of being deployed by an actual team. Any general manager who already gives up on building around Skenes, when he’s not even arbitration eligible, may as well pack up their office while they’re at it.

Matt Snyder: Absolutely not. He’s under team control through the 2029 season. If the Pirates traded him, it would be a signal to the fans that they definitely don’t think they can contend through 2029 or, really, even 2030 or 2031. If you’re doing that, you should be contracted. It’s pathetic the Pirates didn’t try to do more this past offseason to surround Skenes while he’s cheap, but even thinking about trade him would be malpractice to previously unseen levels. 

Mike Axisa: No. Of course not. They drafted him with the No. 1 pick less than two years ago. That pick is already a huge success, and if you’ve determined in less than two years that no, we can’t win with this guy between now and his free agency in 2029, then you’ve failed specularly and the entire front office should be fired. I understand the arguments in favor of trading Skenes — the Pirates stink, pitchers get hurt, they could get a haul, etc. — but no, they should not trade him. A bona fide No. 1 starter is the hardest thing to acquire in this game and Pittsburgh has one. Filling out the rest of the roster around him is the easy — “easy” — part. Shame on Pirates GM Ben Cherington and his staff that this question has even popped up this summer.