Paul Skenes' brief and disappointing update on Pirates contract extension says it all

The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the best pitchers in baseball on their roster, and they're paying him a small fraction of what he's worth.

Paul Skenes, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and 2025 NL Cy Young Award frontrunner, is set to earn a base salary of $800,000 this upcoming season, and he won't be eligible for arbitration until 2027. It would undoubtedly be in the player's best interest to wait as long as possible before agreeing to a long-term deal, considering he's currently on track to sign a record-breaking contract for a starting pitcher if he continues on his current trajectory; but it would be in the Pirates' best interest to sign him sooner than later if they have any hope of landing him on a more team-friendly deal.

Paul Skenes' brief and disappointing update on Pirates contract extension says it all

The Pirates typically don't like making costly, multiyear commitments (unless those commitments are to 11-year-old card collectors); but the fact that they signed infielder Ke'Bryan Hayes and outfielder Bryan Reynolds to contract extensions long before they were in their contract years provides a glimmer of hope that they might do the same with Skenes.

However, when Skenes was asked about the possibility of signing a long-term extension with the Pirates at PiratesFest over the weekend, he wasn't exactly bullish in his response.

"Haven't heard a whole lot," Skenes said. "I haven't given it too much thought."

The fact that he hasn't "heard a whole lot" from the Pirates is disappointing, but not surprising. This is a club that never pays top dollar for, well, anything; but if ever there were a player worth breaking that trend for, Skenes is it.

Skenes is coming off of an historic debut season that saw him finish third for the NL Cy Young Award in addition to winning NL Rookie of the Year. He went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts and set a Pirates franchise record for a rookie with 170 strikeouts over 133 innings pitched. He was also the first pitcher in MLB history to have an ERA below 2.20 and more than 150 strikeouts in his first 21 games, as well as the second pitcher since 1913 to have an ERA below 2.00 through his first 22 appearances.

And, at 22 years old, he's just getting started. If Skenes isn't the type of player that Pittsburgh would want to make a Pirate for life, then who is?

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