Paul Skenes dethroning Tarik Skubal on MLB's Top 100 list only adds to Pirates' urgency

It's been a pretty productive offseason for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the club adding a pair of 2025 All-Stars to a lineup that was the least productive across all of Major League Baseball last season. Creating at least a competent offense to go alongside one of the league's best pitching staffs was a clear but necessary goal.

Obviously, that pitching staff is headlined by Paul Skenes, the young phenom and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner. The No. 1 overall draft pick just three seasons ago, Skenes has already built quite the resume. In just two MLB seasons, he's accumulated 13.5 bWAR, struck out 31% of opposing hitters, and posted an ERA of just 1.96. That's one of the best starts to a career in baseball history.

Skenes is so talented that he's become one of the most popular figures across the national baseball stage, despite playing in a small market like Pittsburgh. He's won a major award in each of his two seasons, winning NL Rookie of the Year in 2024 before winning the NL Cy Young Award unanimously last season.

Skenes recently received more high praise from MLB Network, coming in at No. 7 on their Top 100 Players Right Now countdown. That's the second-highest a Pirate has ever ranked on their Top 100, trailing only Andrew McCutchen, who came in fourth on their list ahead of the 2016 season.

But most notably, Skenes was the highest-ranked pitcher on the list, one spot ahead of Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who's coming off back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards and is the other name on the "best pitcher in baseball" shortlist. Skenes achieving such heights at his age (he just completed his age-23 season) is a remarkable achievement.

Skenes' success puts even more emphasis on what fans have been saying for years—the team has to find a way to win now. The Pirates were lucky enough that the most talented pitcher in the world fell into the franchise's lap. But part of that equation involved the Pirates capitalizing on building a team around Skenes while he's still cheap, and the team has wasted his first two pre-arbitration years.

The Pirates possess the top-ranked pitcher in baseball. It's time to finally build a true contender around him.

The 2026 season is Skenes' last before he becomes eligible for salary arbitration, at which point his salary will begin to increase, likely at a rapid pace. The more expensive he gets, the harder it will be to build a winner around him. The clock has been ticking for two years now, but Pirates fans are still waiting for results.

Pittsburgh has made strides toward that goal recently, both in terms of adding established veteran players (signing Ryan O'Hearn and Gregory Soto, and trading for Brandon Lowe), as well as improving internal development (adding Bill Murphy to an already strong pitching staff and developing the consensus No. 1 prospect in the sport).

But the Pirates may never land a talent like Paul Skenes ever again, and the franchise isn't in a position where it's able to keep him long-term. Building a real contender around him gets more crucial by the day. Baseball fans in Pittsburgh and across the country are dying to see Skenes pitching in important games in September and October. It's on the Pirates to finally make that happen.