The Pittsburgh Pirates, sitting at the bottom of the National League Central, can find some solace in the fact that they have the most dominant young pitcher in baseball in Paul Skenes. Pittsburgh's woes, however, have resulted in some unsubstantiated buzz that the franchise could resort to trading their generational ace.
If there was any glimmer of hope that a team could obtain Skenes's services in a trade, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington put any buzz to bed.
"No, it's not part of the conversation at all," Cherington said Thursday when asked whether the team would consider a Skenes trade, via the Associated Press.
The Pirates GM opened up about the team's offensive struggles to start the year, as Pittsburgh has scored an MLB-low 146 runs through 50 games—18 less than the next closest teams, the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. He hopes the Pirates' position-player prospects can force the franchise's hand into some mid-season call-ups to give the offense a spark.
"We want guys from Triple-A to pound the door down," he said via the AP. "That would be good. I still think that can happen this year. We want more of it over time. ... Everybody knows we've got to score more runs. That's not going to happen just by saying it and hoping for it. You've got to do the work to do it."
Skenes has an impressive 2.44 ERA through 10 starts thus far in his second MLB season. He has seven quality starts, but only three wins as the Pirate offense has struggled at times helping Skenes convert on quality starts.
On Wednesday, the New York Post's Jon Heyman reported there was "no chance, no way, no how" Skenes was getting traded, according to a team source of his. Cherington's recent comments hammer that point home. The Pirates will try to figure it out without dealing the prized pitcher.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pirates GM Makes Strong Statement About Recent Paul Skenes Trade Rumors.
