Paul Skenes could soon sign an extension with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the league’s best pitching stars in Paul Skenes, who dominated in his rookie year.
As soon as he reached the big leagues, Skenes became one of the most electric players in baseball, posting a sub-2.00 ERA and an 11-3 record, giving the Pirates something to cheer about.
Now, talks of a potential contract extension could be looming.
“The Pirates have been in a mood to do extensions of late, notably securing Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller to deals that total 21 years and $253.5 million,” Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer writes.
“Good job, guys. Now do Paul Skenes.
“That the Bucs should want to keep Skenes for the foreseeable future pretty much goes without saying. “Sensational” barely begins to describe his NL Rookie of the Year-winning 2024 season, in which he posted the lowest ERA by a live-ball era rookie starter.”
However, given the Pirates’ history in signing their best players to long-term deals, it doesn’t seem likely for Skenes to get that deal at this time.
“Skenes, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, may be on an island unto himself there. But when he does start thinking about it, he’ll have every right to aim high. Perhaps as high as Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s record deal for a pitcher at 13 years, $325 million,” Rymer writes.
“It’s hard to imagine such a deal being replicated by the Pirates. They have only ever done one nine-figure deal, and that one barely cleared the bar.”
Skenes doesn’t become a free agent until the end of the 2029 season, so the Pirates have time. And if he continues to play as well as he did in his rookie year, the Pirates may have no choice but to give him a blank check before he can hit the open market.