![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Paul-Skenes.jpg\")
Paul Skenes will remain with the Pirates for the 2026 season, according to general manager Ben Cherington. Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\nLAS VEGAS \u2014 The Yankees would not be doing their job if they did not continue to check in on Paul Skenes.<\/p>\n
They did at the trade deadline this year, as The Post\u2019s Jon Heyman previously reported, and they almost certainly will again this offseason. But at least for now, they are likely to get the same answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be a Pirate in 2026,\u201d Pirates GM Ben Cherington said Tuesday at the general managers meetings at the Cosmopolitan Hotel.<\/p>\n
Skenes, the heavy favorite to win his first Cy Young on Wednesday night, still has four years of team control left, which would make the potential return for him astronomical at this point. But until the Pirates prove they can build a winning club around him, there will be questions about when and if he will be traded \u2014 including from Cherington\u2019s fellow heads of baseball operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question gets asked and it\u2019s always respectful,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cTeams have to ask the question, right? So I suspect that won\u2019t end. But the answer has been consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cherington and Yankees GM Brian Cashman have become frequent trade partners in recent years, including deals for Jameson Taillon, Clay Holmes and David Bednar. <\/p>\n
But this offseason at least, Cherington insists his focus will be on building a roster to support Skenes and what he cares about the most.<\/p>\n
Paul Skenes will remain with the Pirates for the 2026 season, according to general manager Ben Cherington. Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThat probably gives us the best chance to keep him in Pittsburgh for longer, is winning games,\u201d Cherington said.<\/p>\n
The Yankees\u2019 ability to develop catchers has caught the attention of the rest of the industry, especially those teams that have acquired them.<\/p>\n
This past season, there were 11 catchers playing in the big leagues that had spent time in the Yankees\u2019 organization and in their catching program \u2014 Austin Wells, Ben Rice, J.C. Escarra, Jos\u00e9 Trevino, Kyle Higashioka, Ben Rortvedt, Carlos Narv\u00e1ez, Luis Torrens, Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez, Rafael Flores and Alex Jackson \u2014 led by Tanner Swanson and Aaron Gershenfeld.<\/p>\n
![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Austin-Wells.jpg\")
Austin Wells is one of 11 catchers playing in the big leagues that had spent time in the Yankees\u2019 organization and in their catching program. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they legitimately are developing catchers well,\u201d said Cherington, who acquired two \u2014 Flores and Edgleen Perez \u2014 in the deal for David Bednar. \u201cDoesn\u2019t mean that every catcher that comes from the Yankees is going to be a good player, but you do trust that they\u2019ve gotten pretty good training. That\u2019s been consistent [with] the guys we\u2019ve had, and Rafa included in the time we\u2019ve had him and talked to him. They\u2019re getting pretty good training at that position.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees also used another catching prospect, Jesus Rodriguez, to help acquire Camilo Doval from the Giants at the deadline, just as they used Ramirez (who received downballot NL Rookie of the Year votes Monday) as the centerpiece to get Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Marlins at the 2024 deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do an incredible job,\u201d Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. \u201cAn incredible job with a lot of their player development, especially catching.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Yankees have some work to do in their bullpen this offseason, but acquiring Bednar at the deadline \u2014 with him being under club control through next season \u2014 gave them a strong head start. <\/p>\n
In 22 games with the Yankees, Bednar posted a 2.19 ERA while taking over the closer\u2019s role, then pitched well again in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the favorites I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cSomebody asked me at the time of the trade, how do you think he\u2019ll do in a big market? I said, \u2018He\u2019ll do great, because he\u2019s got confidence, he\u2019s accountable, he\u2019s talented, he likes the moment.\u2019 Good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
While Ramirez placed sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, another former Yankees prospect, Caleb Durbin, finished third. <\/p>\n
The Yankees dealt the infielder to the Brewers last offseason (along with Nestor Cortes) to acquire Devin Williams, a deal that may continue to haunt them down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told us right away, he\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019ve been overlooked my whole life,\u2019\u201d Brewers GM Matt Arnold said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we kind of loved him. It felt like the industry kept overlooking him. I think if you saw him in the playoffs, you weren\u2019t going to overlook him. He just kept stepping up the whole year and became a guy that was really reliable for us in our lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Yankees would not be doing their job if they did not continue to check…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":372951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[93797,48428,1266,179519,2228,34554,1886,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-372950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ben-cherington","9":"tag-brian-cashman","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-hot-stove","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-paul-skenes","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115534458389233691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}