ESPN just gave Pirates’ Ben Cherington the worst blueprint ever to trade Paul Skenes..
Let’s make one thing clear: the Pittsburgh Pirates have zero intention of trading Paul Skenes at the deadline this year.
Ben Cherington has said it. Skenes himself has said it. And yet, the trade proposals won’t stop coming, each somehow more outlandish than the last.
Take, for example the trio of trade pitches put forth by David Schoenfield of ESPN. While he admits that a trade is unlikely, he notes that the Pirates would “have to at least consider” making a deal if they were presented with the right offer.
But what would “the right offer” be? Evidently, everything short of Shohei Ohtani’s firstborn. Schoenfield’s so-called “Godfather offers” (i.e., those that cannot be refused) for Skenes are so unrealistic that even the actual plot of “The Godfather” sounds more plausible.
ESPN just gave Pirates’ Ben Cherington the worst blueprint ever to trade Paul Skenes
Schoenfield’s first proposed trade package for Skenes comes from the New York Mets and includes SS/CF Jett Williams (No. 20), RHP Jonah Tong (No. 50), RHP Nolan McLean, IF Ronny Mauricio and OF Carson Benge. With absolutely no disrespect to any of these fine young players, none of them could come even close to replicating Skenes’ success. The Pirates would (or should) say no to this deal in a heartbeat.
The second proposed package comes from the Los Angeles Dodgers and includes offer C/OF Dalton Rushing (No. 14), OF Josue De Paula (No. 17), IF Alex Freeland, RHP Emmet Sheehan, LHP Jackson Ferris. That’s essentially the Dodgers saying, “Hey Pirates, would you like all of the prospects we’ve already called up who weren’t actually that good?” Hard pass.
Schoenfield also went so far as to suggest that the Pirates would “understandably” demand Roki Sasaki in a trade with the Dodgers. Other than his reasonable price tag, there’s absolutely nothing understandable about the pitching-heavy Pirates wanting an injured arm who has, to this point, been a massive bust in his first Major League season.
Finally, we have the Detroit Tigers’ proposed trade package, which Schoenfield calls “the one that could get it done.” In this scenario, the Pirates would send Skenes to Detroit in exchange for OF Max Clark (No. 8), SS Kevin McGonigle (No. 11), RHP Jackson Jobe, IF Colt Keith, and RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long.
In this case, the Tigers would be the ones emphatically saying, “No.” Sure, the idea of a pitching rotation that contains both Skenes and reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal sounds enticing, but Detroit would be giving up a massive haul to make it happen. It simply wouldn’t be worth it.
Ultimately, the bizarre nature of all of these proposed trade packages brings us right back to where we started: there is simply no universe in which Skenes gets traded at the deadline. But of course, we already knew that.
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