The Paul Skenes saga with the Pirates is far from over. Since Jon Heyman reported that the Pirates are “likely to extend” him, fans can’t contain their excitement over what the team has planned for next season. And the anticipation was further amplified when the Yankees were reported to have shown interest in Skenes. According to Heyman, New York offered up names like Spencer Jones and top-ranked prospect George Lombard for the pitcher. However, that didn’t materialize and made the fans believe that the Pirates are actually preparing an extension for Skenes. But is it so?

There’s no doubt that this year was wasted with Paul Skenes’ talent in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are now all set for a 10th straight season without a playoff berth and haven’t posted a winning record since 2019. And the big question keeps coming up: what’s the future of Skenes with the Pirates? Ahead of his final start of the season, Skenes was asked where things stand with potential extension talks.

“No. That’s not something I want to discuss during the season,” Skenes told reporters. “They haven’t brought anything up to me out of respect for that, too. No discussions on that.”

Well, so the Pirates keep insisting they’re committed to Skenes, but so far, there haven’t been any extension talks. Why? That’s mostly because Skenes doesn’t want to deal with that stuff during the season. Maybe those conversations happen in the offseason, but his focus will probably be on tightening up the few areas of his game that still need work, even if he’s not sure what those are yet.

Now, realistically, it’s tough to see Skenes signing a long-term deal in Pittsburgh unless ownership and the front office show they can actually build a winner. The Pirates do have the makings of a strong young rotation with Skenes, Jared Jones, Bubba Chandler, and Mitch Keller. But with Bob Nutting at the top, the fans are not expecting any radical approach.

However, apart from the Yankees, more suitors are lining up for Skenes, making the Pirates race against time if they want to secure Skenes.

The Pirates are fighting their own demons to secure Paul Skenes

“Skenes could target $44 million per free-agent season. That would be higher than the record average annual value established by Max Scherzer,” Tim Britton of The Athletic predicted.

Do you think the Pirates would pay that much? Ahh, highly unlikely…. Owner Bob Nutting is known for running one of the league’s cheapest operations. And for the unversed, he hasn’t signed a free agent to a multi-year deal since Ivan Nova back in 2016. However, if the Pirates were smart, they’d try to lock him up with an extension now. Why?

Because that way, they’d secure him on a team-friendly deal and avoid paying the much bigger numbers that would come in arbitration and free agency.

Notably, right now, Skenes is making $875,000 in 2025, his second of three pre-arbitration years, where salaries are basically at or just above the MLB minimum of $760,000. After that, he’ll go through three years of arbitration before finally hitting free agency after the 2029 season. And you already know how much he will command then.

From Skenes’ side, signing early would give him a big raise right away and lock in significant money through his arbitration years instead of waiting until the next decade for his first massive payday. So, whether the two sides can find common ground remains to be seen. But if they don’t, fans know how this story usually ends. Yes, you might have guessed it — another star player is walking out of Pittsburgh.