The Pittsburgh Pirates have done a brutal job at building a roster around superstar pitcher Paul Skenes.

In baseball, where players usually have to “earn their keep,” Skenes stepped in right away in his rookie year as a 22-year old and demanded the league to pay attention.

Now, you see his face everywhere. He possesses one of the best arms in baseball, he’s winning awards, making All Star games, and not only that, he’s appearing on magazine covers with his girlfriend Livvy Dunne.

The Pirates have desperately needed a star like Skenes. Someone who inevitably forces the team’s hand and attempts to build a winner.

Pittsburgh hasn’t seen a winning team on the diamond in God knows how long. It’s made the playoffs only three times (from 2013 through 2015) since 1992, and it only has two wins to show for it.

But what’s even more wild about the Skenes era in Pittsburgh is how dominant he has been on the mound, while having next-to-no run support.

In a post on X from baseball analyst Ryan Spaeder, he explained just how the roster built around Skenes is costing him wins.

It’s starting to be awfully reminiscent of the Jacob deGrom era while he was pitching some of the best baseball that anyone has seen with the New York Mets. deGrom went on to win the Cy Young in two consecutive seasons as a Met, and his combined record at that time was 21-17.

Almost like Skenes’ 21-13 record in his first two seasons.

However, that stat that Spaeder revealed was eye-opening. Skenes may be approaching his third season in the league next year, but there are already teams that are willing to shell out everything they have for him.

The New York Yankees wanted him badly, willing to trade two of their top-three prospects in Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr., but Pittsburgh inevitably shut that down.

Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington even said that it’s not happening, but when you have the best pitcher in the game, and a depressing roster every year, trade chatter gets louder no matter how many times you say no.

A lot of it is media driven, a lot of it is by teams leaking information so they can stir the pot, but Skenes is under team control for at least four more years, and it would be silly to trade a generational type of talent based on just pressure.

But what’s notable is how Skenes, in the most polite way, asked for more run support.

​​“Hopefully it also created some space for us to acquire some bats in the offseason,” Skenes told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “Didn’t see a lot in terms of major league [acquisitions] at the deadline, but hopefully that sets us up next year, very well through the guys that we acquired who are in Triple-A, or like I said, with that space in the offseason to pick up some bats.” 

Want to win more games? If you’re not going to listen to the fans who have been begging for the Buccos to be fun and good again, listen to the players you’re paying your money to.

Either way, Pittsburgh better wake up, or else it may see its best player in 30 years walk away sooner rather than later.