The Pittsburgh Pirates, a franchise echoing with the ghosts of baseball titans, found themselves blessed with a celestial gift in the form of Paul Skenes. The right-handed phenom didn’t just arrive in the Steel City; he exploded onto the scene in his rookie 2024 campaign, painting masterpieces on the pitcher’s mound with every electrifying fastball.

Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick, offered a tantalizing preview of a future ace, a beacon of hope for a fanbase starved for a return to glory. He slashed through the opposing lineups, amassing an astonishing 170 strikeouts over just 133 innings pitched, a franchise rookie record that speaks to his absolute dominance. His 11-3 record and microscopic 1.96 earned run average weren’t mere numbers; they were a declaration and they earned him the National League Rookie of the Year award and an incredible third-place finish in the Cy Young voting – unprecedented for a first-year man. Not even the Midsummer Classic could escape his brilliance; he became only the fifth rookie pitcher to start the All-Star Game in MLB history.

Yet, while Skenes was busy etching his name into baseball lore, the Pittsburgh Pirates as a whole offered a different sort of horror show. Even though a generational talent like that was walking through the door, somehow the overall team performance wasn’t able to produce a winning edge; the Pirates continued their prolonged struggle, without a playoff appearance since 2015 and another without a playoff win since 2013.

Adding his voice to the growing chorus of concern, Yahoo! Sports MLB analyst Jake Mintz didn’t hold back in his assessment of the situation. “No ownership group should be more embarrassed, no ownership group has exhibited more cowardice than the one running the Pirates led by Bob Nutting,” Mintz said on the ‘Baseball Bar-B-Cast’ podcast. “When Paul Skenes falls into your lap and you do not take advantage of that, it is a generational missed opportunity,” Mintz said.

The team’s predicted 2025 payroll, near the bottom of Major League Baseball, provides insight into an organization that does not appear ready to fully take advantage of the golden opportunity offered by Skenes’ ascendance. And so, Mintz’s impassioned critique reflects what many fans feel: the Pirates’ ownership is failing to meet the moment, throwing away a rare opportunity to build a sustained winner around a talent like Skenes.

Skenes’ stellar start in a sea of mediocrity

In the offseason, the club brought in veterans such as Andrew Heaney, Tommy Pham, Adam Frazier and Tim Mayza on relatively short and inexpensive deals. While these additions might offer some depth, they hardly represent the significant upgrades typically expected for a team harboring aspirations. Former MLB executive Jim Bowden echoed this sentiment, grading the Pirates’ offseason moves as “C-plus“, suggesting a failure to address the team’s fundamental needs.

Moreover, baseball history is littered with cautionary tales about the best pitching prospects falling victim to the unexpected. The brilliance of a young arm, no matter how electric, can sometimes be fragile. Sudden injuries mystically changed the careers of Stephen Strasburg, J.R. Richard, and recently, Gerrit Cole, a former top Pirates prospect, as well as countless other pitchers. If Skenes gets sidetracked for even a year, would the team have any sort of Plan B for the rest of its roster? Would everything else on the team collapse around that one great pitcher?

The recent past of the Pittsburgh Pirates provides a sobering context. Since those brief playoff runs in the early 2010s, the team has mostly plodded through mediocrity. In 2022, they won only 62 games, and they fared only slightly better in 2023 with a 76-86 finish. As for the 2024 season, even the sensational debut of Paul Skenes wasn’t enough to salvage a playoff race for the team.

Now the question is: Will the Pittsburgh Pirates’ ownership finally seize this “generational” chance to invest in their roster and reward their passionate fanbase, or will they allow a golden goose to slip through their fingers?