MLB Insider Wants Pirates Building Around Paul Skenes

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the best pitchers in baseball in Paul Skenes, but don't have a great surrounding cast around him.

The Pirates currently have a 21-36 record, sit 14.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in first place of the National League Central Division, 11.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the last NL Wild Card spot and have the fourth worst record in the MLB.

They fired manager Derek Shelton after a 12-26 start, and while new manager Don Kelly has gone 9-10 in his first 18 games, the Pirates still have a long way to go before becoming serious contenders.

Skenes has had another sensational season regardless, even with a 4-5 record. He has a 2.15 ERA, with just 18 earned runs allowed over 75.1 innings pitched, 77 strikeouts to 18 walks, a .187 opposing batting average, a 0.92 WHIP and a 9.20 K/9.

Many MLB national reporters and writers have asked whether or not the Pirates should trade Skenes and get the most out of him, with the team as bad as it is.

Jon Heyman, a baseball insider for the MLB Network, spoke on the show MLBNow about Skenes and what the Pirates should do.

He wants the Pirates to support Skenes, by giving him better hitters, as the Pirates rank near the bottom of the MLB in many statistical categories.

"They need to build around him," Heyman said. "Their pitching isn't bad, they need hitting. They need to get hitting, obviously, instead of signing a guy for $3 million, $4 million here. They're going to need to go out there and get some more offense to build around because their pitching is really good. Obviously, they have one of the top five pitchers in the game, that's a big star."

He also spoke on how the Pirates can't do what they did with former star pitcher Gerrit Cole, who they traded with just one year left of club control of, and need to make a serious effort to commit to supporting Skenes now.

"I say one of two things need to be done. Either build around him or trade him. I would favor building around him. So I hope they do that. That would be my choice. But you can't just let it linger where you don't build around and you have five tough years like Cole and you trade him with one year to go and don't get much for him."