The Pittsburgh Pirates may never be able to build a contender around Paul Skenes, and he reportedly already has an ideal trade destination. It used to be true that the New York Yankees just bought everyone to win championships, but that’s no longer the case with more teams spending leaguewide and a more frugal ownership team. That said, the Yankees of old might have to come back, because a new report states that Skenes would like to play for the Yankees and soon.

Yankees named Paul Skenes’ ideal landing spot in bombshell report

If Paul Skenes isn’t going to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates anymore, which it looks like he does not want to, he would like to play for the New York Yankees. Randy Miller of NJ.com reported, “According to a Pirates teammate who recently spoke with NJ Advance Media, Skenes has ‘no confidence the Pirates ever are going to win’ with him in Pittsburgh, and he’s ‘hoping for a trade’ well before he can become a free agent after the 2029 season.”

Skenes is one of the best assets a team could ever have, so any trade package is not likely to meet the value Skenes actually brings since he is under team control for so long. However, if he’s not happy and wants out, the Pirates may have no other choice. That teammate also said, “Trust me, he wants to play for the Yankees. I’ve heard him say it multiple times.” It even got the attention of Pirates GM Ben Cherington, who acknowledged it by saying, “I do dismiss it, but I understand it. What we’re going to focus on is just how do we win games with him in a Pirates uniform. I have a ton of respect for the Yankees, but we’ll just focus on what we need to do.”

For now, the Pirates are saying Skenes is off limits and that he will wear black and yellow in 2026, but things can change. The regular season is a long way away, and if the Pirates don’t have a good offseason, then Skenes might grow even more disgruntled and demand a trade.

Could anyone afford Paul Skenes?

In two seasons, Paul Skenes has not recorded an ERA over 2.00. He won the NL Rookie of the Year, and he will undoubtedly win the NL Cy Young in a couple of days. He has been maybe the best pitcher on the planet, but certainly in the National League, since his debut. There has really not been a player like Skenes in a very long time.

That makes it impossible to tamp down his value. A team would be trading for a very inexpensive contract attached to the best pitcher in the sport for the next four seasons. He has unfathomable value, so it is literally impossible to even point to any other baseball blockbuster as a starting point. Any team, be it the Yankees or anyone else, would have to part with their top prospects, and some of their young players, too. And even then, it would probably not quite be enough, as Skenes is so good that the Pirates would inevitably take a loss on the return in almost any scenario.

But if the Yankees do trade for Skenes, it’s going to cost a ton. They will have to include some young pitching, which means Will Warren and/or Cam Schlittler will be part of the package. The Yankees would love to keep fan favorite Schlittler after his historic postseason, but to get talent, you must give talent. It’s why they couldn’t hold on to Michael King when going after Juan Soto before the 2024 season.

The package wouldn’t stop there, though. They’d have to likely part with either Spencer Jones or Jasson Dominguez. On the one hand, Jones is a top prospect, and Dominguez is a decent major leaguer, so it would ultimately depend on what the Pirates value. Dominguez is still only 22, and Jones is 24, so the Pirates would probably prefer the player who has shown he can hit in MLB and is younger.

The Pirates would probably ask for George Lombard Jr., the Yankees’ top prospect, but the Yankees would probably try to avoid that and maybe try to include the often-maligned but talented Anthony Volpe instead. They could roll with veterans, like Jose Caballero, while they wait for Lombard to reach MLB readiness.

That means the package would include Schlittler, Dominguez, and Volpe, but it would probably need to be filled out by some lower-ranked prospects to really seal the deal, so Kaeden Kent, Roderick Arias, or Dillon Lewis make sense. Either way, it would end up being the biggest haul any team has likely ever brought back in a trade. And that still makes it a long shot.