A headline dropped that sent shockwaves not only through Pittsburgh but in the whole MLB fraternity: “Paul Skenes has a Yankees dream: ‘Trust me,’ teammate says — and Pirates ‘understand it.'” For Yankees fans scrolling through their feeds, it felt like Christmas morning. For Pirates faithful? More like a gut punch. The rumor put Skenes in an awkward spot, and when he appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, the host wasted no time asking about the Yankees whispers.

Paul Skenes pushed back. “There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose, and I want to be a part of the group. I want to be a part of the 26 guys who change that. I don’t know where that came from.” It was a clear denial, a statement of loyalty to the city of Pittsburgh.

However, Rich Eisen, the veteran broadcaster with an estimated net worth of $40 million and a reputation as one of the diehard Yankees fans, saw an opportunity.

“As a Yankee fan, I must correct him,” Eisen jumped in. “Paul, it’s not 29 fan bases that think you can’t win. It’s 30. Ask any Pirate fan—you can’t do it.” A troll with a comfortable truth. Eisen didn’t stop there. He praised Skenes’ competitive fire while making it clear Pittsburgh wasn’t the place to fulfill championship dreams. “This is the type of guy I want to have on my team. He wants to be there. He wants to be that guy.”

Then came the pitch, wrapped in baseball history.

Eisen ran through Gerrit Cole’s journey—UCLA to Pittsburgh to Houston to Yankees glory. The parallel was deliberate. Great pitchers leave Pittsburgh to win elsewhere.

“Do we need to connect you with Jetts?” Eisen asked, invoking Derek Jeter’s legacy. “When you do it in New York City in those pinstripes, that interlocking NY, it’s a totally different ball of wax.”

He closed with: “Skenes maybe deep down knows it. I love hearing that. That’s the type of guy I want on my team, too.”

The exchange hit harder because it touched Pittsburgh’s rawest nerve—their pattern of developing stars who chase rings somewhere else.

That’s why Henry Davis’s response mattered. Paul Skenes’ teammate and close friend, who was also drafted in 2023, not only denied the report. However, he called it frustrating as well.

“I think I spend a decent amount of time around him. The other guys on the team I talked to never heard him say anything about that,” Davis told reporters. The timing bothered him most. “It’s frustrating, at least from my perspective, that it came out on a day that was supposed to celebrate him.”

Davis described their actual conversations: “Paul’s not someone to talk about the future unless it’s about Pittsburgh. Since we’ve been drafted, the extent of our talks about the future has been about, ‘What can we do better in Pittsburgh? How can we turn this place around?” For two players who’ve spent countless hours together, Davis seemed genuinely blindsided. “I was definitely surprised to see it.”

Amid all the back and forth, the 23-year-old still carries the same goal as Davis mentioned.

Rumour mill stops! Skenes focuses on the Pirates, not the Yankees

Paul Skenes didn’t spend any time talking about the trade speculations that linked him to the New York Yankees. He said clearly, “I’m on the Pittsburgh Pirates, my goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the city of Pittsburgh.”

He also made it clear that he ignored the story and only thought about his local club: “I got shown the tweet and really didn’t think anything of it. … I don’t know where that came from … the goal is to win and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”

Skenes backed up what he said with his 2025 stats: a 1.97 ERA and 216 strikeouts in 32 outings. He stressed how much the Pirates’ fans and city mean to him: “The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh, and I want to be a part of the group that did that.”

In other words, Skenes is putting an end to the rumors and saying again that he is committed to Pittsburgh. He has made it clear where his allegiance lies and that he remains focused on achieving success in his own area, rather than chasing headlines elsewhere.

Ben Cherington, the Pirates’ General Manager, made the point clear: “Paul Skenes is going to be a Pirate in 2026.”

The rumors are out, and the commitment is in. For now, at least, the Pirates’ best player is remaining where he said he wanted to be.