Paul Skenes Grew Up Massive Angels Fans; Could Halos Pursue Him in Future?

The Los Angeles Angels fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday night, but have had the lifelong fandom of their ace.

Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, is off to another hot start during his sophomore season in the big leagues, but revealed some elite baseball knowledge when it came to the Fullerton, CA native's favorite players growing up.

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“I grew up watching (Mike) Trout, (Shohei) Ohtani more recently,” Skenes said via the Orange County Register's Jeff Fletcher. “Erick Aybar. John Lackey. Go through them. It’s cool to be back.”

Skenes is a lifelong Halos fan, but also has a few special connections to the organization. A major one the All-Star revealed is that he was born in 2002, the last time the Angels were champions of the baseball world.

“I like to think I was the reason the Angels won the World Series, because I was born that year,” Skenes said, smiling.

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Skenes was also present for a more recent piece of Angels' lore, Shohei Ohtani's first start on the mound at Angel Stadium. The future star pitcher watched the former Halos two-way star throw seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while hurling a season-high 12 strikeouts.

A young Skenes also came back a few days later for the full Ohtani experience.

“He hit a ball about 470 (feet), over our heads in right field,” Skenes said.

With these past and more recent memories, it begs the question if the All-Star would ever come back down to Southern California and pitch for his childhood-favorite team.

Unless a trade is made with key pieces of the Angels team, and Pittsburgh even entertains the idea, it would appear that free agency would have to be the way for the Halos to acquire Skenes.

There were murmurs of early contract extension talks between the Pirates and Skenes this spring, but those have seemingly been put to rest by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Andrew Destin.

Skenes isn't eligible for free agency until 2030, and if he continues to play like he has early in his career, he'll be line for likely the richest contract in MLB history for a pitcher.

Whatever ends up happening with Skenes, the young core of the Angels will continue to grow and develop whether the Rookie of the Year plans to be a part of the movement or not.

However, if Skenes wants to play for the Angels, the team will have to open their pocketbooks to get a deal done.

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