Paul Skenes Influencing Potential Pittsburgh Pirates Trade?

The Pittsburgh Pirates apparently want to increase their payroll this offseason, particularly by adding some bats to their league-worst offense.

Pirates insider Dejan Kovacevic has surmised that the best way to achieve this is by trading away pitcher Mitch Keller.

"The clearest way to make that increase exponentially higher would be to trade Mitch Keller, who'd due $16.5 million, $18 million and $20 million over the final three seasons of his contract. I've expressed for months my own expectation that this'll happen," Kovacevic wrote.

Howver, Kovacevic has his doubts that a Keller trade will occur due to the fact that the 29-year-old is the top veteran on the Pirates' young staff ... and potentially because of Paul Skenes.

"I'm not suggesting Paul Skenes is exerting influence on anyone in this process, but I know for a fact Skenes would love to keep Keller as a teammate," Kovacevic added.

Skenes certainly has a whole lot of influence on Pittsburgh right now. He is the franchise at the moment, and part of the reason why the Pirates are aiming to blow some cash this winter is because Skenes made it clear after the 2025 campaign that he expects improvement.

The NL Cy Young award winner is under team control through 2029, so it's not like Skenes could force the Buccos to trade him anytime soon, but the last thing the Pirates want is a disgruntled Skenes in the clubhouse.

Keller, meanwhile, pitched to the tune of a 4.19 ERA while allowing 171 hits and registering 150 strikeouts over 176.1 innings of work this past season.

Pittsburgh signed the right-hander to a five-year, $77 million contract extension in February 2024, which followed a 2023 campaign in which he made the All-Star team. It's not like he was great that year, though, as he finished with a 4.21 ERA.

Since entering the big leagues in 2019, Keller has logged a 4.51 ERA, 4.01 FIP and 1.382 WHIP, so it's not like has been anything special. In fact, he really hasn't been anything more than a back-end-of-the-rotation starter for the most part.

And to be fair to the Pirates, it's hard to ask them to improve and then essentially instruct them not to move one of their top trade chips, especially when he isn't incredibly valuable.

Of course, we have no way of knowing for sure if Skenes is blocking a potential Keller trade, but that would be a tough one for Pittsburgh.