Pirates' Paul Skenes Gets Blunt About Yankees Rumors
In this story:
Once again, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes has shut down any connection that's attempted to be forged between himself and the New York Yankees.
Ahead of the Pirates' road series against the Yankees in the Bronx this week, the New York Post's Jon Heyman approached Skenes and broached the topic of his girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, attempting to buy Babe Ruth's old apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City last summer, with her endeavor later being rejected by a co-op board.
Skenes subsequently threw cold water on the idea that Dunne's bid had anything to do with a future desire to suit up for the Yankees.
“That’s probably reading a little deeper into it than what is true. If you’re a baseball fan, you’re probably a Babe Ruth fan,” Skenes said.
According to Heyman, Skenes added that Dunne spends more time in New York City than he does due to her work as an influencer, alongside the fact that she's from northern New Jersey in Bergen County, perhaps serving as further proof that the couple's motivation to buy Ruth's apartment was not related to the right-hander's baseball future.
Skenes/Yankees Discourse Has to Stop
Unsurprisingly, considering Skenes plays for a small-market club, fans and even media have pushed the idea of the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner joining the Yankees essentially from the moment he debuted in May 2024.
It came to a head when a reporter at MLB All-Star Media Day stated, "Just got the best interview of all time with Paul Skenes, future Yankee," to which Skenes replied, "Who was that?" and was visually befuddled.
With the lack of a salary cap, which is the main sticking point between MLB and the MLBPA during negotiations for a new CBA, teams with seemingly unlimited financial resources like the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are constantly lauded as future landing spots for some of the game's brightest young stars who just so happen to play elsewhere.
A lockout appears to be looming as the result of a divide on the issue of a cap, and the outcome will impact the Pirates rather significantly depending on how the situation transpires.
Pittsburgh would benefit from a cap being implemented. Regardless of if that occurs or not, any discussions surrounding Skenes and the Yankees have to stop.
The Pirates' window of contention is opening up, and they have a bright core of young talent already contributing at the big-league level in addition to a talented farm system.
Skenes is an indispensable part of the team as their No. 1 starter and one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He's also under club control through the 2029 campaign.
He's all but certain to eventually break the record for the largest contract handed out to a pitcher in league history. That's not a bridge he or Pittsburgh realistically has to cross for several years, however, making the discourse popping up linking Skenes to the Yankees futile and frankly useless.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Jack is a New Jersey native who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh as a Media & Professional Communications major in 2024 who is now covering the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Yankees for On SI.