Time for Pirates to Consider Unthinkable Paul Skenes Trade?
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PHILADELPHIA — Paul Skenes is one of the best pitchers in baseball and arguably, one of the best pitchers in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but his future with the team is always up for question.
Skenes isn't having the season almost anyone envisioned for him, with a 6-8 record over 17 starts, a 3.62 ERA over 97.0 innings pitched, 119 strikeouts to 22 walks, a .211 batting average allowed and a 1.01 WHIP.
He's still had success in this season, but he hasn't won any of his last nine starts and posted a 5.36 ERA during that time.
Trade rumors around Skenes always come up this time of year, with the deadline a month away, and there could be reason the Pirates would benefit from trading him.
Why the Pirates Would Benefit From Trading Skenes
The biggest issue for the Pirates with Skenes is that he enters arbitration after this season, after finishing his first three seasons of pre-arbitratrion.
His pre-arbitration salaries have been quite low, making $1.085 million this season, the highest-pre-arbitration salary ever, and $875,000 in 2025, when he won the National League Cy Young Award.
Skenes will now set a salary demand for next season and the Pirates will either meet it or both parties will go to an arbitration panel, where they'll decide in favor of the player or the team.
The Pirates and Skenes could avoid arbitration by agreeing to salaries prior or even with a long-term contract extension, but it's really unlikely either happen, with Skenes set for record arbitration salary figures, especially if he gets back to form this season.
Pittsburgh has one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, with their Opening Day figure of $99,925,900, eighth-lowest in MLB, even after they made some free agent signings.
The Pirates have just three seasons left with Skenes and that includes an impending lockout, with the current CBA expiring on Dec. 1, which could see baseball lose games in 2027 or even the entire season.
Pittsburgh trading Skenes means they could get something back for him instead of him just playing the final three years with arbitration and then leaving in free agency.
The Pirates are always in need of prospects or proven arms/bats and with Skenes only throwing once every five-six days, the team may see a trade haul as valuable as having Skenes on the team.
Why the Pirates Ultimately Won't Trade Skenes and Shouldn't
The Pirates have been adamant that they won't trade Skenes, with general manager Ben Cherington reiterating that consistently throughout last season, where the Pirates finished 71-91 overall, the fifth-worst record in baseball.
Skenes is in his first slump in the major leagues, but the promise he brings every time he steps onto the mound is something the Pirates can't justify parting with, especially not this season.
The Pirates are 43-44 through 87 games, three games back in the NL Wild Card race, and have one of the best offenses in baseball, ranking towards the very top in most categories, a complete turnaround from 2025.
Pittsburgh's offense has needed better from Skenes, but also from the rest of the starting rotation and the bullpen, which is a big need for the team at the trade deadline.
That offense isn't complete without a great starting rotation and Skenes pitching like he once did, which he showed at times earlier on in 2026, would play a massive role in the Pirates making the postseason and then getting a chance to win once there.
It's unlikely that the Pirates would get a great value for Skenes at this time and if they did trade him, it would come in the offseason and likely after the new CBA is ratified, which may change the Pirates plans around their ace.
Skenes is the face of the Pirates. A hero for a city that is desperate for winning baseball and a glimmer of hope for the chance to bring that back once again.
He has also stated himself his desire to win in Pittsburgh and went into great detail on that following his Cy Young Award win last season, where a rumor spread he wanted a trade to the New York Yankees, which he quickly shut down.
“I got shown the Tweet and really didn’t think anything of it," Skenes said on the conference call. "I got some texts about it. I’m on the Pirates, my goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the City of Pittsburgh. The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh and I want to be a part of the group that did that. I think about it the same way as when I was at the Air Force Academy. We had never been to a conference championship and my sophomore year we ended up winning the conference. We had never finished in the top four in the conference before that."
“Pittsburgh, the way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the group, a part of the 26 guys that change that.”
“I don’t know where that came from, the goal is to win. I don’t know the reporter that reported it. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that, but the goal is to win and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”
That kind of attitude is exactly what the Pirates need and having their star player and leader exemplifying that as outwardly as Skenes did, shows that he is the right person to bring 'Buctober' to PNC Park.
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Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.