Yankees fans talking Paul Skenes trade (again) proves delusion is alive and well

There are bad takes… and then there’s New York Yankees fans talking themselves into a Paul Skenes trade because of one bad inning in March.

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The latest spark came from Jon Heyman casually dropping that the Yankees tried to acquire Skenes at last year’s trade deadline — with a package that “might have included” Cam Schlittler, Roderick Arias Lagrange, George Lombard Jr., and Spencer Jones. Cool story.

The more important detail? The Pirates didn’t even call back.

And somehow — somehow — the takeaway in certain corners of the internet is not “wow, Pittsburgh values a generational ace,” but instead:

“See? The Yankees almost had him. They can still get him.”

No. They can’t.

Jon Heyman's calculatedly-timed report feeds into Yankees fans' delusions about a potential Paul Skenes trade

Let’s reset reality for a second. Skenes is not a rental. He’s not a declining veteran. He’s not even arbitration-expensive yet. He’s a 23-year-old, pre-arb, Cy Young-winning ace making barely over $1 million — the single most valuable asset in baseball when you factor in performance, age, and cost control.

That type of player doesn’t get traded because of one bad outing on Opening Day. And yet, the timing here is what makes this whole thing feel especially absurd.

Skenes has the shortest outing of his professional career — two-thirds of an inning, some bad luck, shaky defense behind him — and immediately the conversation becomes: “Could the Yankees revisit this?”

That’s not analysis. That’s fan fiction. And it speaks to a broader phenomenon: the belief that every elite player is ultimately just waiting to be a Yankee.

It doesn’t matter that the Pirates are trying to build something. It doesn’t matter that Skenes is the literal foundation of that build. It doesn’t matter that trading him would be franchise malpractice. In this mindset, small-market teams exist as farm systems with nicer stadium views.

What’s even funnier is the package itself. Jones is intriguing. Lombard Jr. has upside. But we’re still talking about prospects — uncertain, unproven, years away from even sniffing Skenes’ current value.

You don’t trade a generational, cost-controlled ace for a collection of “maybes," and you definitely don't do it after one bad start.

But that’s where the delusion creeps in — the idea that Pittsburgh would “sell low,” that they’d panic, that they’d suddenly forget what they have.

They didn’t call back then. They wouldn’t call back now.

And if anything, one rough outing doesn’t change Skenes’ value — it just reveals how quickly certain fanbases will try to speak something into existence.

The Yankees didn’t almost get Paul Skenes. They just reminded everyone how badly they wish they could.