Pirates fans are fed up after Bleacher Report's Dodgers-Paul Skenes trade prediction

Pittsburgh Pirates fans are tired. Paul Skenes is under team control through 2029, and Ben Cherington has said (repeatedly) that he's not on the trade block. Still, the trade proposals won't stop coming.

And now we’re supposed to pretend that the latest trade fantasy floating around — courtesy of Bleacher Report — is somehow a reasonable conversation starter for moving the single most electric pitcher this franchise has produced in decades.

The proposal? A bundle of Los Angeles Dodgers parts — Emmet Sheehan, Andy Pages, Dalton Rushing, Josue De Paula and Alex Freeland — sent to Pittsburgh in exchange for Skenes. In other words, one generational ace for a Costco pallet of “pretty good" –– and we're supposed to seriously debate it.

Skenes isn’t just another “top prospect.” He’s the kind of pitcher organizations build around. The kind of arm you sell season tickets with. The kind you hope to see pitch Game 1 in October — not on another team, but at PNC Park. He’s not a “sell-high asset.” He’s the entire point of suffering through rebuilds.

Trading him isn’t roster management. It’s organizational malpractice.

Pirates fans are tired of disrespectful Paul Skenes trade proposals

Of course it’s the Dodgers again. It’s always the Dodgers. Baseball's trust-fund kid showing up with a suitcase labeled “Prospects” and acting shocked when the rest of baseball doesn’t immediately hand over the crown jewels.

We’re told Sheehan “replaces” Skenes in the rotation. That alone tells you how unserious this suggestion is. You don’t replace a potential Cy Young winner. You cope after losing one.

Pages is pitched as a middle-order bat, Rushing as a ready-made catcher, Freeland as a plug-and-play shortstop and De Paula as the superstar lottery ticket. But this is where Pirates fans get especially fed up: We’re not trading someone who might become great. We’re trading someone who already is great — and hasn’t even hit his prime.

Four “pretty useful” big leaguers and one “maybe incredible someday” prospect do not even begin to approximate the value of a player like Skenes.

The trade idea isn't even the biggest problem here; it's what the idea represents. It’s the ongoing assumption that Pittsburgh exists to develop stars for other franchises. That the Pirates are a farm system, not a team. That their greatest achievement is identifying elite players — and then handing them to markets that will actually pay them like the stars they are.

This isn't just "fun hypothetical." This is disrespect wrapped in trade proposal clothing. Pirates fans aren’t mad because the offer is bad, but because the league keeps pretending our players are permanently for sale.

Skenes is not a trade chip. He’s the franchise. He’s the future. He’s the reason you build — not the thing you sell off once you’ve finally struck gold. So no, this trade package wouldn't be enough. And honestly? We’re done pretending it’s up for debate.