The Paul Skenes trade rumors are dead. For now.
Pittsburgh Pirates GM Ben Cherington has been emphatic that Skenes is not going anywhere. “He’s going to be a Pirate in 2026,” Cherington told reporters this offseason. That message has held all year. The Pirates have not even taken calls on their ace.
This makes sense if you understand the situation. Skenes is under team control for four more seasons. He will not even reach arbitration until after the 2026 season. The Pirates can pay him below market value for years. There is no scenario where Pittsburgh trades him during the 2026 season unless he publicly demands it.
And Skenes has not done that. He has been a model employee. He has talked about loving the city, the fan base, and the team. He has been one of the easiest stars in baseball to root for.
The frustration for Pirates fans is that the team is wasting his prime. Skenes is one of the best young pitchers in baseball history. He is throwing 99 mph with a wipeout slider. He has the kind of arsenal that wins playoff series. And the Pirates are not in a position to compete.
Pittsburgh’s roster has improved, but not enough. The position-player core is mediocre. The bullpen is below average. The bench is thin. Outside of Skenes, the team does not have the pieces to win a postseason series. That has fueled the trade speculation. Why keep a once-in-a-generation talent on a team that cannot win?
The Pirates’ answer is that holding Skenes is the right long-term play. He is cheap. He is a marketing asset. He is a player the team can build around. Trading him now would be a panic move that nets a great return but extends the rebuild for years.
The counter-argument is that prospects have a high failure rate. Trading Skenes for a package of top-50 prospects would deliver maybe two or three big-league regulars. None of them would be Paul Skenes. Pittsburgh has done this before, traded stars at the peak of their value, and gotten back packages that did not pay off.
The Yahoo Sports framing has been right. The trade rumors are on pause, not gone. If the Pirates do not significantly improve the roster around Skenes over the next 18 months, the rumors come back. If Skenes himself eventually decides he wants to play somewhere with a real shot at winning, the rumors come back. If a desperate team offers something truly absurd, the rumors come back.
For 2026, though, Skenes is staying. Cherington has been clear about it. The team has held the line all spring. The trade deadline talk will continue, but it should not move the needle.
The bigger question is what happens in the offseason. The Pirates have payroll flexibility. They have some prospects ready to contribute. They have a manager in Don Kelly who has earned trust. If ownership commits to a real payroll bump, Pittsburgh could be a sleeper team in 2027.
If they do not, Skenes is going to start asking questions. Quietly at first. Then publicly. Generational talents do not stay in losing situations forever. The Pirates have a window to build a real team around him. They need to use it.
For now, Skenes is the most valuable arm in baseball who is staying put. Enjoy it, Pittsburgh. The era will not last forever.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
