Pittsburgh Pirates 'Building' Around Paul Skenes Is One Of MLB's Funniest Ideas

Paul Skenes has followed up his stellar rookie campaign with another spectacular start to the 2025 season. 

Reports broke this past week, led by ESPN's Jeff Passan, that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be fielding calls about Skenes' availability in the trade market around this year's deadline.

Skenes, remember, is just 22-years-old, one of baseball's best pitchers, making just $875,000 this year, and is under team control at well below market rates for most of the next decade. In short, he's one of the most valuable commodities in baseball. Along with one of its most marketable personalities, considering his off-field relationship and relatively high profile outside baseball fans.

READ: Would The Pirates Really Trade Paul Skenes This Year?

A new post from Jon Heyman on Wednesday threw a bit of cold water on Passan's report, saying a Pirates source repeatedly denied that Skenes would be traded. That's not too surprising; but what was surprising was an inclusion at the bottom of Heyman's post about the Pirates' intentions.

"Pirates source: Paul Skenes is not getting traded. ‘No chance, no way, no how,' is the way I heard it. While there's a bit of logic to such a scenario, superstars just aren't traded by anyone with 1 year service time and the Pirates remain determined to build around Skenes."

Sure they do.

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes. Photo: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

Pittsburgh Pirates Don't Deserve Paul Skenes

The Pirates had Skenes entering 2025, and their plan to "build around" him was to sign Tommy Pham, an aging Andrew McCutchen, and Andrew Heaney. That's it. 

The Pittsburgh offense is historically bad. That's not an exaggeration. The Pirates have had 26 consecutive games of scoring four runs or less, a Major League Baseball record. Pirates ownership and their front office did effectively nothing to address it. 

This is their plan for "building?" 

It's why Heyman's post doesn't stand up to scrutiny, the Pittsburgh organization has shown repeatedly that it can't be taken seriously. There's no interest in winning, or even attempting to reach the playoffs. It's an opportunity for owner Bob Nutting to pull money out of the team while doing the bare minimum to get PNC Park to 50 percent capacity, some of the time.

The Pirates could have signed Alex Bregman, who's had a torrid start to the 2025 season, to the same deal Boston did. They could have traded for Cody Bellinger to shore up their outfield, with the Cubs making him available after trading for Kyle Tucker. 

Heck, they could have traded for Kyle Tucker. 

They did nothing. Because they're not a serious organization. Nutting doesn't deserve to own a baseball team, the organization doesn't deserve to have a generational talent like Skenes on its roster, and it certainly doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making him available years too early.

The Pirates don't view Skenes as someone to build around, they view him as someone who they can flip for more prospects in a few years when he starts making "too much" money, restarting their endless rebuilding cycle. It's embarrassing for the sport, and unfair to Skenes. Let's hope he's set free sometime soon.