Pittsburgh Pirates Organization Doesn't Deserve Paul Skenes After Another Embarrassing Loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to be a national embarrassment, and they're doing their best to waste the peak of one of the best young pitchers in recent baseball history.

Paul Skenes has not only lived up to his pre-debut expectations, he's exceeded them. After a dominant 2024, finishing the season with just a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings, Skenes has been similarly elite to start the 2025 campaign. While his strikeouts are down, 85 in 83.1 innings, he has a 2.05 ERA and has cut his walks and home run rate while limiting hard contact.

And the Pirates are wasting it by refusing to build a reasonable team around him. To the point where highly regarded Major League Baseball reporters openly discussed Pittsburgh taking calls about his availability at the trade deadline. So much so that the Pirates were forced to deny it by leaking to another subset of reporters.

READ: Pittsburgh Pirates 'Building' Around Paul Skenes Is One Of MLB's Funniest Ideas

Then Tuesday night exemplified, yet again, why the Pirates organization simply doesn't deserve to have Skenes on the roster.

Pittsburgh Pirates RHP Paul Skenes fires one in vs. the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park in Pennsylvania. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

Skenes against the Houston Astros turned in yet another typically excellent start. And was rewarded in typically disappointing Pirates fashion. 

Eight innings pitched, just three hits allowed, one walk, eight strikeouts, and one run. Sure enough, he left the game trailing 1-0, before the Astros tacked on two more runs in the ninth to win 3-0. If that sounds familiar, it's because almost the exact same game played out for Skenes just a few weeks ago.

On May 18, Skenes went eight innings against the fearsome