Pirates rookie phenom pitcher Paul Skenes got an ovation from the fans when he was pulled from a Tuesday game. Nothing unusual except it was in St. Louis, with fans of the Cardinals recognizing the special nature of a visiting player’s performance.
Skenes, the first pick overall in the 2023 draft, has been nothing less than a revelation for the Pirates. In a month of Major League play, Skenes has started six games, going 3-0 with a 2.43 earned-run average.
His velocity routinely hits triple digits. He has a five-pitch repertoire and is only beginning to display that at this level.
Simply put, Skenes has given downtrodden Pirates fans a glimpse of greatness and hope that this moribund franchise might somehow return to the time when it won six division titles and two World Series titles in the 1970s, or three consecutive division championships in the early 1990s.
But the track record of the Pirates franchise in recent decades Skenes tells us will be elsewhere in 2030, when he becomes eligible for free agency, if not well before.
This reality was rammed home by watching the Los Angeles Dodgers play the New York Yankees over the weekend in a matchup many believe was a preview of the season’s eventual World Series pairing.
These are thought to be two of the best teams in the majors, and both have former Pirates pitchers on their rosters.
The starting pitcher for Los Angeles in one game was Tyler Glasnow. During the broadcast of that game, injured Yankees hurler Gerrit Cole, another former Pirate, was shown in the dugout.
The Yankees won one game, and Clay Holmes, yet another ex-Pirate, got the save.
The message is clear: The Pirates draft and/or develop talent, then send it elsewhere once the cost of retention becomes too steep.
Yes, the Pirates gifted Skeenes with a record $9.2 million signing bonus, but that number pales compared to the average $36 million a season Cole is scheduled to earn in his current 9-year contract with the Yankees.
The Pirates can’t be a consistent contender without spending a lot more money on payroll. That’s the truth, one proven by results since that last run of sustained Pirates success more than three decades back.
It can be argued whether the Pirates are frugal by choice or by necessity, but that doesn’t change the reality that they don’t spend enough to win.
The Pirates traded Cole to Houston after the 2017 season because they couldn’t afford to re-sign him.
One of the players the Pirates received in the deal was pitcher Joe Musgrove, who they traded to the Padres after two seasons.
Jameson Taillon, currently with the Chicago Cubs, is another Pirates castoff, one in some ways similar to Skenes. Taillon was the second overall pick in the first round of the 2010 draft. After several injury-plagued seasons with the Pirates, he was traded to the Yankees, a team that can afford to take chances on talented players with injury problems.
Taillon had two strong seasons with the Yankees, parlaying that into a four-year $68-million contract with the Cubs.
Even the Yankees can’t keep – pay – everyone. But teams like the Yankees and Dodgers do more than their share of spending.
The Pirates do not. The message to Pirates fans is enjoy Skenes while he’s here, because that sound you hear is the unmistakable ticking of the clock on his career in Pittsburgh.
Sam Ross Jr's site 