On the night he became the second-youngest unanimous Cy Young Award winner in history, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes disputed a report that he has told teammates he wants to be traded long before free agency and, more specifically, would like to play for the New York Yankees.
“I got shown the tweet and got some texts about it. Didn’t think much about it,” Skenes said on a Cy Young conference call. “I’m on the Pirates. My goal is to win with the Pirates. … The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, we’re not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the 26 guys that change that.”
The report from NJ Advance Media’s Randy Miller quoted an anonymous Pirates teammate saying he had heard Skenes talk multiple times about wanting to play for the Yankees. The anonymous teammate further stated that Skenes hoped to be traded years before he reached free agency — which is due to happen after the 2029 season — because he had no confidence the Pirates would win while he’s in Pittsburgh.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Skenes said. “I don’t know the reporter. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that. But the goal is to win, and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”
On Tuesday night at Major League Baseball general managers meetings in Las Vegas, Pirates GM Ben Cherington said the team will not trade Skenes this offseason. Asked later about Skenes’ reported interest in the Yankees, Cherington told NJ Advance Media, “What we’re going to focus on is just how do we win games with him in a Pirates uniform. I have a ton of respect for the Yankees, but we’ll just focus on what we need to do.”
Unlike former Pirates ace and fellow No. 1 overall draft pick Gerrit Cole, Skenes has not shown a lifelong devotion to the Yankees. Skenes grew up in Lake Forest, Calif., 20 miles down Interstate 5 from Angel Stadium. He watched the Los Angeles Angels regularly. His favorite player was Mike Trout.
“The goal is to win, and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh,” Paul Skenes said. (Justin Berl / Getty Images)
Despite Skenes logging a 1.96 ERA through 55 starts in the big leagues. the Pirates have endured seven consecutive losing seasons. They have made the playoffs just three times since 1992. They lost 86 games in Skenes’ rookie season, and 91 games this year. He’s earning more hardware each year, but the Pirates have not built a winning ballclub around him. They had a bottom-five payroll in 2025.
Cherington says there’s more flexibility to spend this offseason.
Skenes was 11 in 2013, when the Pirates snapped a 20-year playoff drought. He watched on TV as Pirates fans blacked out PNC Park for the wild card game and delivered an unforgettable postseason moment. The Pirates returned to the postseason in 2014 and 2015.
Now, Skenes said, “It’s been 10 years, the second-longest playoff drought in the big leagues. Someone can check my math on how many years it’s been since we won a World Series: 46 years? Sorry, I went to LSU. Yeah, 46 years without a World Series championship. This is why I’m going to show up to the ballpark, and I’m going to work to get everybody pushing in the same direction. I know there are other guys who are going to do the same. That’s all the truth.”
Last month, as the Pirates interviewed pitching-coach candidates, Skenes had a phone call with then-Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy. Skenes said he told Murphy that the Pirates tend to attract two types of people: those who see the role as a steppingstone — a resume builder — and those who embrace the opportunity and understand how special it would be to create a winner in Pittsburgh.
After he was hired, Murphy phoned Skenes again.
“He told me he was that second guy,” Skenes recalled. “Talk is cheap, but he chose to come to Pittsburgh.”
On Wednesday night, Skenes said in no uncertain terms that he plans to be part of the Pirates’ rebirth. But he also made it clear that while the individual awards filling his home are nice, the only thing he has circled on his career checklist is something he can’t accomplish alone.
“Winning World Series championships,” he said, “and multiple of them.”