Paul Skenes could spark MLB-wide changes after electric start to career

This should have happened sooner, to be honest. Although the Pittsburgh Pirates are slightly below .500 on the season, can you imagine how much better they might have been had top prospect Paul Skenes been on the roster on Opening Day? In only two big-league starts, Skenes has set the baseball world on fire with his blazing fastball and powerful presence from the mound. He is it, man!

While appearing on Foul Territory, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal tried to explain why Skenes was kept down in the first place, trying to understand the Pirates' logic in doing so. While Rosenthal doesn't blame the Pirates for being cautious with their top prospect, it feels like this has everything to do with MLB service time manipulation, an epidemic that has plagued the sport of baseball for far too long.

Yes, I can understand Rosenthal's comments about trying to protect Skenes in having him pitch a month and change of less stressful baseball in Indianapolis or something, but give me a break... The Pirates ooze small-market energy out of every orifice of their organization. It was all about preventing a potentially generational pitcher like Skenes from going to free agency one season sooner. That is it!

Here is the entire clip of Rosenthal trying his best to explain why the Pirates did what they did here.

Let's unpack Rosenthal's thoughts on the situation and go from there. What can we do about this?

Paul Skenes could be the one to bring about wholesale changes to MLB

One interesting wrinkle that Rosenthal did mention has to do with consensus top-100 prospects winning a major award as a rookie. That happened last year with Gunnar Henderson in Baltimore. He won AL Rookie of the Year, which helped the Orioles get an additional pick because he was with the team from the jump. This may help mitigate some of that, but this all needs to be resolved in one way.

There needs to be a salary floor in baseball yesterday. If you want to spend more money than God to only come up short in the postseason, be my guest. However, implementing a previously negotiated salary floor prevents historically cheapskate teams like the Pirates from cutting even more corners. It is great to retain your own players, but hardly ever giving them a second contract is a huge problem.

Overall, I think Skenes could be a catalyst for change in the sport. A so-called Skenes rule could do away with rampant MLB service time manipulation. Players like Skenes are good for the game, and good for Pittsburgh. He should be allowed to pitch unencumbered without having penny-pinchers like the Pirates get in the way of his greatness. I don't have all the answers, but Skenes may be a solution.

MLB needs to find more ways to incentivize its teams to get its best prospects called up even sooner.