Paul Skenes feels destined to be dubbed the next Captain America after the news on Tuesday that he'll be suiting up for Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Pittsburgh Pirates flamethrower and NL Cy Young contender is going to have the eyes of the baseball-watching world on him and that's a treat for just about everyone. For Bob Nutting and the Pirates, however, it's actually a portent of their inevitable eventual loss of one of the brightest young stars in the sport.
Almost from the moment and he took the mound and immediately dominated in Pittsburgh, the questions of whether or not the Pirates would be able (or willing) to pay Skenes to keep him with the organization that drafted him out of LSU arose. With more than a season worth of data to prove that the right-hander is, in fact, as good, if not better, as advertised, those questions have only grown louder. And that all makes the World Baseball Classic appearance a potential existential threat to the Pirates.
While Skenes representing Team USA if an honor he's fully deserving of, it's also an honor that other players, most of whom do not play on the notoriously cheap Pirates, are also going to be awarded. That also gives those players the opportunity to ostensibly start recruiting the Cy Young candidate to somewhere other than Pittsburgh.
Paul Skenes playing in WBC makes his Pirates future even more uncertain
New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge is committed to Team USA as well as the Bronx Bombers and their rekindled love for aggressive spending could put Skenes in their crosshairs. It's not at all far-fetched to think that Judge could be in his ear singing the praises of wearing the pinstripes and trying to help open the door for an eventual exit from the Pirates to the Yankees.
However, it's also likely that the likes of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, to name a couple, will be in the mix. We know that the Los Angeles Dodgers will seemingly pay whatever it takes to get the right star and it only stands to reason that they, like any reasonable MLB franchise, will see Skenes in that light. Given what the Dodgers superteam already looks like, selling the merits of that move to the right-hander wouldn't take all too much effort.
The list could go on and one with potential candidates for Skenes' next team should he leave the Pirates and the representatives from those teams that could play for Team USA in the 2026 WBC. What's clear, though, is that they are all a threat that the Pirates feel characteristically unsuited to deal with.
Pittsburgh, despite the glut of talent that they have in the organization, has refused to build a contender around them. Derek Shelton was already fired as the Pirates manager, but what was he supposed to do? Put Andrew McCutchen in a time machine back to his prime? Finally get Ke'Bryan Hayes' bat to come around? It ultimately comes down to Nutting's unwillingness to invest in the team.
Even if he were willing to pay to keep Skenes — which is far from a guarantee in itself — there's no evidence the owner is willing to invest in the Pirates roster beyond that. So why then would the almost certain perennial Cy Young contender want to link his future to this franchise? That only comes more to the forefront when he's presented with situations that have vastly different levels of investment from ownership and the front office while playing with Team USA.
Again, Skenes eventually exiting Pittsburgh started to feel like a formality only a few starts into his MLB career and any hope has been consistently deteriorating since. It's going to be great for baseball fans at large to watch him with Team USA, but it's a nightmarish reminder for Pirates fans that their future with Skenes in Pittsburgh is most likely not a long one.