Trading for superstar pitcher Paul Skenes would be an absolute dream scenario for the Chicago Cubs. But that doesn’t get them any closer to achieving it.
Skenes, who turned 23 on Thursday, is already a top-five pitcher in Major League Baseball, despite debuting only a year ago. He’s got a 2.03 ERA in 35 career starts, but his Pittsburgh Pirates have only regressed as a franchise since he arrived in the big leagues.
The combination of Skenes’ brilliance and Pittsburgh’s ineptitude has led to rampant speculation that Skenes could be traded. The frugal Pirates also seem unlikely to offer him a market-value extension before he hits free agency, which won’t be until 2039.
But if any Cubs fans are harboring any secret hopes that Skenes can actually join their team sometime soon, one of their own players is here to deliver a dose of reality.
During an appearance on Chicago radio station “670 The Score” on Wednesday, Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said he would be “shocked” if Skenes was traded at all, saying that it didn’t make sense for Pittsburgh from a competitive standpoint.
“Honestly, I don’t think (the Pirates) are going to trade Paul Skenes. I think that’s more of a media blitz than reality,” Happ said. “I don’t think Paul Skenes will be traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates, I would be shocked.”
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“When you look at the game today, there is this, hey, if you have a superstar talent and you don’t think that you are going to competitive for one to two years, does it make more sense to move that guy and to get two big league ready players plus prospects that you think could be superstars.”
With an injury-plagued starting rotation, the Cubs would be overjoyed if the Pirates put Skenes up for grabs. They’d have to give up an unprecedented package of prospects to get him, but there’s never any guarantee that prospects pan out.
Unfortunately, that feeds into Happ’s point. The Pirates know they have a generational player in Skenes, and no matter how much the rest of the world urges them to let him go, it’s far too soon to expect them to do so.
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