As we look around Major League Baseball and some of the biggest moves of all time that could happen, it’s evident that the Pittsburgh Pirates moving on from Paul Skenes would be at the top of that list.
As of right now, unless the New York Yankees traded Aaron Judge or the Los Angeles Dodgers traded Shohei Ohtani, there wouldn't be a bigger move. We could probably even go as far as to say that Skenes would be bigger than both of them due to his age.
For many reasons, as I've said hundreds of times, there's no reason to move on from Skenes if you're the Pirates.
The Pirates aren't exactly in the best spots to compete for a World Series in the near future if the front office and ownership don't go out and spend, but that doesn't excuse them from trading someone who has a legitimate chance to be the best pitcher of all time.
I'm really glad that some in the media are starting to figure that out too, including Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, who I believe did one of the better pieces of the year on the whole Skenes and Pirates situation.
He tried to examine the pros and cons of trading him, and his pro list, there wasn’t one to write.
“I guess there's an argument that a trade package for Skenes could be monstrous. If the Pirates were guaranteed to get back something like five stud players for the future, why not? And if you strike now before Skenes even hits arbitration, that means the offers would be higher than they'll be in the ensuing few seasons. Each year that Skenes gets closer to free agency (and more expensive, the smaller the return. The problem is that when you're talking about prospects, nothing is guaranteed, as noted above.
“For me, realistically, there are no pros to trading Skenes. Even the discussion is an insult to the fan base and if it starts happening from the front office -- meaning it's likely coming from ownership -- there should be a full-on revolt,” he wrote.
As I said above, Snyder really did a good job in this piece, and it just goes to show what the right mind thinks about the situation in Pittsburgh.
If the Pirates were to move on from Skenes, we'd have to see major changes with the front office.
It'd only be fair to the rest of Major League Baseball and the fans in Pittsburgh if something changed due to its incompetence.