{"id":48571,"date":"2025-05-16T02:21:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=48571"},"modified":"2025-05-16T02:21:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:21:55","slug":"blockbuster-yankees-trade-rumor-targets-500-million-pitching-ace-for-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=48571","title":{"rendered":"Blockbuster Yankees Trade Rumor Targets $500 Million Pitching Ace For Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"has-video wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Yankees-trade-Paul-Skenes.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Yankees-trade-Paul-Skenes.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Yankees-trade-Paul-Skenes.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Yankees-trade-Paul-Skenes.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Aaron Boone signals for a relief pitcher.\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"2431\" data-dom-ready-time=\"2781\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"featured-widget-area\">\n<div id=\"heavy_multi_stn_video_player_widget-4\" class=\"stn-player-cls stn-player-container\">\n<div data-stn-player=\"8efwxt1u\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The New York Yankees are gaining momentum in their quest to win a second straight American League pennant,\u00a0winning six of their last eight games\u00a0to pull 3 1\/2 games ahead of the second place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. But thanks in\u00a0large part to a series of injuries, the Yankees\u2019 starting rotation continues to look like the club\u2019s Achilles heel.<\/p>\n<p>The rotation as a whole has not been terrible, with\u00a0a collective 3.73 ERA\u00a0good enough for sixth in the AL. But much of that is the result of Max Fried, who so far has done everything to justify his\u00a0eight-year, $218 million\u00a0free agent contract.<\/p>\n<p>Through nine starts,\u00a0the 31-year-old lefty\u00a0has won an AL-leading six with three no-decisions\u00a0and an MLB-leading\u00a01.11 ERA. After Fried, Carlos Rodon has posted\u00a0a 3.29 ERA with no other starter under 4.61.<\/p>\n<h2>Top Baseball Insider Fuels Skenes Trade Speculation<\/h2>\n<p>But one trade rumor is gaining steam around baseball circles \u2014 a trade that would provide an instant boost to the Yankees rotation, raising it from merely adequate to elite. The rumor was given fuel when one of the most respected MLB insider journalists, ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan, suggested that the Pittsburgh Pirates could trade their 22-year-old, sophomore mound phenom Paul Skenes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<p>In fact, Passan \u2014\u00a0appearing on\u00a0<em>The Pat McAffee Show<\/em> Wednesday \u2014 appeared to advocate for the viewpoint that the Pirates should let Skenes pitch elsewhere, before saying that he believed Pittsburgh should hold on to their ace because, \u201cwith some of the players that they have coming up, they would have a chance to win if they were to go out and actually bring in some offensive players and sign some free agents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Passan also said that \u201cthere\u2019s a real argument to be made that the best thing for the Pittsburgh Pirates would be to move Paul Skenes when he has his most value \u2026 It\u2019s a depressing reality. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Where would Skenes end up? As so often happens with big name players, the Bronx, New York, is at or near the top of the destination list. And indeed,\u00a0<em>Pinstripes Nation<\/em>\u00a0commentator Esteban Qui\u00f1ones wrote on Thursday that the Yankees may be actively targeting Skenes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe New York Yankees\u2019 perpetual hunt for elite pitching has found a new fixation: Paul Skenes,\u201d Qui\u00f1ones wrote. \u201cAs Pittsburgh\u2019s organization spirals into another rebuilding cycle, whispers about the future of their generational talent grow louder, with Yankees supporters leading the speculation chorus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also adding fuel to the trade rumors, the fact that Skenes himself, though only in his second year as a big leaguer, has gone public with his dissatisfaction over playing for a losing team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019d better grow,\u201d\u00a0Skenes said of his team, following the firing of Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton. \u201cIf we don\u2019t grow, it\u2019s a completely lost season.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The High Cost of a Generational Pitching Phenom<\/h2>\n<p>If they did deal Skenes to the Yankees \u2014 admittedly a far-fetched possibilty, but as Passan implied, one that could be on the table \u2014 the Pirates would clearly demand a haul of prospects in return. Skenes was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2023,\u00a0National League Rookie of the Year and All-Star\u00a0starter in 2024, and would have led MLB in ERA with his 1.93 mark if he had pitched 29 more innings.<\/p>\n<p>For a generational talent like that, the Yankees\u00a0would probably be expected\u00a0to\u00a0surrender at least two of their top three prospects, infielder George Lombard Jr., power-hitting outfielder Spencer Jones, and righty hurler Ben Hess.<\/p>\n<p>Some Major League talent would likely need to be part of the deal as well \u2014 though the\u00a0Pirates with their 27th-ranked\u00a0payroll seem unlikely to take on any significant salary obligations.<\/p>\n<p>And how much would it cost to pay Skene? Not much at first. The righty ace remains under team control for four more seasons, and is not even eligible\u00a0for arbitration until 2027.<\/p>\n<p>But when he finally hits the open market,\u00a0according to Passan, look out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be no surprise to see Skenes \u2014 the best pitching prospect in a generation \u2014 parlay his productivity, age and marketability into becoming baseball\u2019s first half-billion-dollar pitcher,\u201d the\u00a0<em>ESPN<\/em> insider wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty The New York Yankees are gaining momentum in their quest to win a second straight American League pennant,\u00a0winning six of their last eight games\u00a0to pull 3&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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