PITTSBURGH — The Pirates are reeling, and just about everything is on the table for a last-place team that has already fired its manager and packed a half-decade’s worth of public relations missteps into two months.
Well, except for one thing: trading ace Paul Skenes.
Asked Thursday if flipping the reigning National League Rookie of the Year is a consideration for a club woefully lacking in impactful position-player prospects, general manager Ben Cherington gave an atypically brief response.
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“No, it’s not part of the conversation at all,” Cherington said flatly.
Pittsburgh is already 11½ games out of a playoff position, thanks in large part to an offense that ranks last or next-to-last in nearly every major category, from runs, slugging percentage and OPS (all 30th) to home runs and batting average (both 29th).
The Pirates at least showed a small flicker of life at the plate in an 8-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers a few hours after Cherington spoke, scoring five runs for the first time in 27 games. Their 26-game streak of four runs or fewer tied a major league record set by four other teams, most recently the then-California Angels in 1969.
Yet it was telling that Pittsburgh also left 10 runners on base, typical of a season in which the Pirates have consistently been unable to take advantage of the few opportunities they create.
It’s not exactly what the team had in mind during spring training, when everyone from Cherington to Skenes to manager Derek Shelton — who was jettisoned two weeks ago and replaced by Don Kelly — talked about the need for Pittsburgh to take another step forward after consecutive 76-86 seasons.
Instead, the Pirates have been stuck in reverse from Opening Day, even when Skenes starts. Pittsburgh is 3-5 in his eight starts, the latest loss a 1-0 setback in Philadelphia on Sunday in which Skenes limited the Phillies to three hits while throwing the first complete game of his career.
Skenes, who turns 23 next week, has been all-in on the Pirates since being called up a year ago. He is also under team control for the rest of the decade and won’t become arbitration-eligible until after 2026, making his current deal one of the biggest bargains in the majors.
Though Pittsburgh has locked down players such as two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to long-term deals, those contracts are a pittance by MLB standards compared to what Skenes might command one day should his career continue on its current trajectory.
The Pirates are perennially one of the most frugal teams in the majors. Their payroll to start the season was just under $88 million. Only the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Athletics and Miami Marlins spent less.
Even so, Pittsburgh has received little return on its investment. Though the bullpen has been a bit of a mess, the starting rotation has been solid. Skenes (2.44), Mitch Keller (3.88), Andrew Heaney (2.91) and Bailey Falter (3.50) all have ERAs under 4.00, yet they also have a combined record of 10-17.
The issue has been a punchless lineup that is largely nondescript beyond Reynolds, franchise icon Andrew McCutchen and center fielder Oneil Cruz.
Yet it’s telling that while Pittsburgh has one of the deeper pools of pitching prospects — a list that includes hard-throwing 22-year-old Bubba Chandler and Mike Burrows, who took the loss in his first major league start Thursday after going 2-1 with a 2.71 ERA for Triple-A Indianapolis — the cupboard of homegrown position players who are on the cusp of the majors remains pretty bare five-plus years into Cherington’s tenure.
Catcher Henry Davis, the top pick in the 2021 draft, remains a work in progress nearly two full years after his major league debut. Second baseman Nick Gonzales, a first-rounder in 2020, is recovering from an ankle injury and has yet to establish himself as an everyday player. Former first-round picks Termarr Johnson (2022) and Konnor Griffin (2024) are still years away.
So far, the only call-ups from Triple-A have been mostly injury-related, not performance-related.
“We want guys from Triple-A to pound the door down,” Cherington said. “That would be good. I still think that can happen this year. We want more of it over time. … Everybody knows we’ve got to score more runs. That’s not going to happen just by saying it and hoping for it. You’ve got to do the work to do it.”
Cherington said he remains optimistic that the major league team will start to turn the corner over the final 110 or so games, and he is certain Skenes will be a part of it no matter which way it goes.
“We’ve just got to get better,” Cherington said. “Let’s play better baseball, and that’s going to lead to winning more games. Then, let’s wake up and see where that takes us when we get to July.”
