Pirates might finally be too stacked to screw this up with Paul Skenes and Konnor Griffin

Asking Pittsburgh Pirates fans to have hope is like asking Charlie Brown to believe Lucy won’t move the football this time. They've learned better.

This time, however, hope actually has a statistical backbone.

Pittsburgh has a Cy Young winner in Paul Skenes and baseball's consensus No. 1 prospect in Konnor Griffin. As Baseball America's J.J. Cooper pointed out earlier this week, it's hard for any team –– even the Pirates –– to be truly bad with two or more exceptional players on their roster.

"Using 5+ WAR as the bar for stardom, Skenes produced 6.5 fWAR in 2025," Cooper wrote. "Among shortstops, Bobby Witt Jr., Geraldo Perdomo, Francisco Lindor and Jeremy Peña all topped 5+ WAR in 2025. It may seem bold to project Griffin to that level, but history suggests it’s realistic."

Skenes’ 6.5 fWAR in his first full Major League season isn’t just a great year; it’s the foundation of contention. The list of pitchers who have posted 6+ WAR in their first full season is short and packed with aces who anchored playoff teams for a decade (think Dwight Gooden, Tim Lincecum and Felix Hernández).

Pair that with Griffin, the rising superstar whose defense and athleticism already rival top-tier MLB shortstops, and you have the makings of a floor raiser for the entire franchise. If Griffin even approaches that 5+ WAR threshold by 2027, Pittsburgh would suddenly boast the rarest commodity in baseball — two legitimate franchise cornerstones.

This isn’t 2019-level “hope built on hype.” The Pirates’ farm system quietly turned into one of MLB’s deepest, especially on the pitching side — Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler, Anthony Solometo, and Jared Jones all give Pittsburgh controllable, MLB-ready arms. Add Esmerlyn Valdez and Termarr Johnson, both of whom made major strides in 2025, and there’s enough young depth that someone is going to hit.

Even if Ben Cherington isn’t a big spender, talent often forces opportunity. A team built around cost-controlled 4-6 WAR players at key positions (ace starter, premium shortstop, power bat) doesn’t need a $200 million payroll to win 85-90 games.

With Paul Skenes in Pittsburgh and Konnor Griffin on the way, Pirates fans have a legitimate reason to be hopeful

History says that when a small-market team lands a true ace and an elite position player at the same time, the competitive window opens –– whether ownership is ready or not. The 2015 Chicago Cubs had Jake Arrieta and Kris Bryant. The 2017 Houston Astros had Dallas Keuchel and Carlos Correa. Even the 2013 Pirates had Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole –– but they didn't surround them fast enough.

This time, Pittsburgh’s timing is better. The young core is arriving together, not staggered across rebuilding cycles. That’s the crucial difference between fleeting relevance and sustainable contention.

Cherington can’t control Bob Nutting’s wallet, but he can control depth and development — and the organization has quietly become good at both. The farm system posted a .554 winning percentage in 2025, third-best in MLB, which is often a leading indicator of future MLB success. So, the Pirates don’t need to dominate free agency. They just need to not sabotage themselves — to keep Griffin at shortstop, extend Skenes before 2028, and supplement rather than replace their core.

Cynicism is understandable in Pittsburgh. But the combination of Skenes, Griffin and a maturing pipeline creates a trajectory that’s genuinely difficult to derail. For once, Pirates fans don’t need blind faith — just patience. Even for a franchise that’s spent decades tripping over its own shoelaces, this level of young, controllable star power is the kind of safety net that makes failure harder than success.