Red Sox Fans' Dream Of Paul Skenes Officially Is Dead, For Now

It has been a weird week across Major League Baseball.

It's no uncommon for unfounded trade speculation to get some buzz around the league. The Major League Baseball trade deadline will be here in July and we are approaching the end of May. Teams are starting to get a good look at their roster and are in the beginning stages of being able to determine whether they will be buyers, sellers, or neither.

There are some teams that clearly know where they will be around the deadline -- like the Colorado Rockies or Chicago White Sox -- but most teams still can probably convince themselves not to blow up the roster yet.

Speculation sometimes gets off the rails and that has been the case over the last week. The Pittsburgh Pirates have a potential generational talent on their hands in Paul Skenes. He won't be a free agent until 2030 and yet some started to speculate about potential deals involving the flamethrower. The conversation picked up steam and found itself all across baseball. It got big enough to the point where Pirates general manager Ben Cherington was asked about the possibility of trading Skenes to which he had a brief, but clear message.

"No, it’s not at all part of the conversation," Cherington said.

The Boston Red Sox were one of the teams that were speculated about. There were ludicrous mock trades flying around the internet mentioning guys like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and others in various different hypothetical deals.

On the Red Sox front, of course any team would want a pitcher of Skenes' caliber, but why mortgage the future they have been building for years? On the Pirates front, why would you ever want to trade a 22-year-old bonafide superstar under team control for years? You wouldn't, as Cherington noted.

Pittsburgh is a small-market team that isn't winning much right now. It's not hard to see why some would wonder if a big-market team could come in and swoop him up like Boston. Maybe one day, but not now. If Skenes doesn't sign an extension in Pittsburgh, the idea of a trade will pop up again -- likely a few years from now. Maybe Boston could make something work or better yet when he eventually reaches free agency.