What Paul Skenes thinks about Pirates fans pressuring ownership to spend
Pirates fans have gotten fed up with owner Bob Nutting’s unwillingness to spend on players.
Paul Skenes hears them, and he sees the positives in their frustration as he tries to lead a culture change for a club that has missed the playoffs the past nine years.
“We’re going to create it from within the locker room, and it’s not going to be an ownership thing,” Skenes told ESPN’s Jeff Passan as part of a profile on the 22-year-old. “Having a group of fans that are putting some pressure on the ownership and [general manager] Ben [Cherington] and all that — it’s not a bad thing, but we have to go out there and do it. I kind of feel like we owe it to the city.”
The Pirates took Skenes No. 1 overall out of LSU in the 2023 MLB Draft, and in 2024 the flame-thrower took baseball by storm.
Skenes won NL Rookie of the Year, earned an All-Star nod and finished third in the Cy Young voting by pitching to a 1.96 ERA with 170 strikeouts in 133 innings across 23 starts.
He has all the makings of a generational talent and someone who can lead the Pirates out of their malaise — if ownership commits to building around him.
But they were not major players in the free-agent market during the offseason, something that has angered a fan base that has not seen a playoff series win since the club won the 1979 World Series, save for a one-game wild-card triumph in 2013.
The Pirates have not handed out a multiyear contract in free agency since they signed ex-Yankee Ivan Nova to a three-year, $26 million contract after the 2016 season.
Fans have been clamoring for Nutting to sell the team, and a couple of non-baseball incidents this season has made them even more furious.
A tribute to legend Roberto Clemente on wall down the right-field line was taken down for an alcohol ad; the Pirates apologized and restored the Clemente signage last week.
Then, it was discovered that the fan-purchased “Bucco Bricks” that normally sit outside PNC Park ended up at a recycling plant.
The bricks were removed during sidewalk renovations and the team said it was exploring how to display the bricks.
Skenes has a 2.96 ERA across four starts this season.
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