NEW YORK — The Yankees have wanted Paul Skenes for a while now. The pitcher keeps making clear the feeling is not mutual.
New York chased the Pittsburgh Pirates ace hard at last summer’s trade deadline. The offer was steep. It centered on four of the organization’s most prized young players. Pittsburgh did not budge.
Since then, the drumbeat has only grown louder. National reporters float his name toward the Bronx. Fans picture him at the top of the rotation. Rival executives assume a small-market club cannot keep a talent this rare forever.
Skenes has heard all of it. Over one stretch in Philadelphia, he answered the noise twice, and neither answer will please anyone hoping to see him in pinstripes.
Two rejections in two days
The more memorable moment came on the All-Star red carpet on Tuesday. Paul Skenes walked the event at Independence Mall with girlfriend Livvy Dunne. Two young interviewers stopped them, the 11-year-old twin brothers known online as the Twinstripe Reporters.
The twins, Cooper and Carter Thomas, wore Yankees pinstripes. They asked the couple about their outfits, then told them both they looked nice. Skenes returned the compliment, then could not resist a dig at their gear.
“You, too!” Skenes said. Then, noticing their outfits, he added, “Except for the pinstripes.”
It was light and it was funny. It was also the second time in two days that Skenes had swatted away the idea of a future in New York.
The twins have built a large online following by interviewing the game’s biggest names. Their pinstriped act made Skenes an easy target. He obliged without missing a beat.
The setup a day earlier
The first came during media availability at Citizens Bank Park on July 13, a day before the All-Star Game. Skenes was fielding questions when a nearby reporter announced she had just landed the best interview ever with a “future Yankee.”
Skenes looked puzzled. He did not play along.
“Who’s that?” Skenes said.
The clip spread fast. It captured how tired the Skenes-to-New-York story has become for the man at its center. He did not lecture anyone about payrolls or contracts. He simply looked confused that the label kept following him around.
Why the rumors will not die
The speculation has a simple root. The Pirates are a small-market team. The Yankees are among the richest and most successful clubs in the sport. Many around baseball doubt Pittsburgh will pay to keep an ace of this caliber.
Skenes is signed through the 2029 season and cannot reach free agency until after that. Yet the guessing continues. Some tie him to New York. Others imagine a move home to California and the Dodgers. The Yankees remain the most common landing spot in those hypotheticals, a nod to their payroll and their long habit of buying star power.
The loudest version arrived last November. An NJ.com report cited an unnamed Pirates teammate who claimed Skenes wanted out. The player said Skenes had no faith the team would win and was hoping for a trade.
That teammate went further, according to the report.
“Trust me, he wants to play for the Yankees,” the anonymous teammate said. “I’ve heard him say it multiple times.”
Skenes pushed back after winning the Cy Young. He framed his goal in team terms, not personal ones.
“There are 29 fanbases that expect us to lose,” Skenes said. “And I want to be a part of the 26 guys that change that.”
What it means for the Yankees
For New York, the repeated brushoffs sting because the fit is so obvious. The Yankees sit second in the American League East at 54-42, chasing the Tampa Bay Rays. The rotation has held up, but October rewards a genuine ace, and the Yankees have hunted that profile at back-to-back deadlines. A front-line starter of Skenes’s quality would reshape their postseason math.
An arm like Skenes would hand manager Aaron Boone a true Game 1 starter for October. That is the picture Yankees fans keep coming back to. It is also the picture Skenes keeps painting over.
The price would be enormous. Last year’s rejected package reportedly included George Lombard Jr., Cam Schlittler, Carlos Lagrange and Spencer Jones, four of the system’s best assets. Pittsburgh called its ace untouchable and walked away.
Skenes still profiles as the sport’s premier arm even in a bumpier year. He is a three-time All-Star, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and the 2025 National League Cy Young winner.
His 2026 line is strong if not vintage. He has gone 8-8 with a 3.57 ERA across 20 starts and 108.1 innings. He has struck out 130 and walked just 24. His expected ERA of 2.74 ranks second among qualified starters, a sign the surface numbers undersell him.
The Pirates, at 50-47, entered the break two games out of the last National League Wild Card spot. That relevance matters. As long as Pittsburgh stays in a race, the case for trading Skenes weakens, and his own words keep pointing away from the Bronx.
For now, the Yankees can only watch and want. Their top target spent All-Star week in another team’s city, smiling, joking with two kids in pinstripes, and telling everyone within earshot that those pinstripes are not for him.
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