Pirates’ Paul Skenes Shocked After Bizarre Yankees Interaction

Skenes Has Shut Down Yankees Rumors Before

There's no doubt Skenes has had one of the best starts to a career of any pitcher in recent history and his 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and 2025 National League Cy Young Awards show just that.

Skenes, because of this, is consistently the subject of trade rumors and wanting to move to a bigger market like New York or even go back home to California to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Certain MLB reporters and fans don't believe Skenes will ever have success with the Pirates, as they are a small market team and don't have the money that bigger ball clubs do, and their lack of winning over the past three years.

The Pirates are in a much better spot this season, 50-47 overall and just two games back in the NL Wild Card race, which has quieted these kinds of comments that he dealt with much of last year.

Skenes addressed a rumor last November, after he won his Cy Young Award, about him wanting to go play for the Yankees, which a former teammate of his spread.

He shut down wanting to play for the Yankees and is only focused on bringing winning baseball to Pittsburgh once again.

“I got shown the Tweet and really didn’t think anything of it," Skenes said. "I got some texts about it. I’m on the Pirates, my goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the City of Pittsburgh. The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh and I want to be a part of the group that did that. I think about it the same way as when I was at the Air Force Academy. We had never been to a conference championship and my sophomore year we ended up winning the conference. We had never finished in the top four in the conference before that."

“Pittsburgh, the way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the group, a part of the 26 guys that change that.”

“I don’t know where that came from, the goal is to win. I don’t know the reporter that reported it. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that, but the goal is to win and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”

Skenes Aiming for Strong Second Half of 2026

The Pirates ace hasn't had as dominant a campaign as he normally does, but is still one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Skenes has posted an 8-8 record over 20 starts, a 3.57 ERA over 108.1 innings pitched, 130 strikeouts to 24 walks, a .216 batting average allowed and a 1.02 WHIP, with a 10.80 K/9, 1.99 BB/9 and a 5.42 K/BB.

His ERA is much higher than his normal sub-2.00 range he had the first two seasons, but his advanced stats have him amongst the top arms, with the second-lowest expected ERA (2.74) and the ninth-lowest FIP (fielding independent pitching).

Skenes is a part of a strong starting rotation with the Pirates, including fellow All-Star Braxton Ashcraft, veteran Mitch Keller, Jared Jones back from long-term injury and rising rookie Bubba Chandler.

The Pirates have one of the best offenses in baseball and will look to add more bullpen help at the trade deadline, while maintaining their stance of not trading Skenes as well.