Blue Jays rivals' attempted pathetic trade proposal for Paul Skenes

Back at the trade deadline, with various contenders looking to add a true difference maker to their roster in their quest for the World Series, an intriguing option became available in Pittsburgh Pirates young ace Paul Skenes. The Toronto Blue Jays may not have seriously even considered the phenom, as they gracefully settled with Shane Bieber.

Even though the Blue Jays may not have been interested, apparently their division rivals, the New York Yankees, were checking in on the availabilty for Skenes. MLB insider Jon Heyman indicated that the Yankees were one of just a handful of teams that made an offer on the superstar at the trade deadline. However, it turned out that the package that they had to offer to the Pirates stalled talks rather quickly.

Blue Jays division rivals offer Pirates a trade they easily said no to

The Yankees were willing to include only their No. 3 prospect Spencer Jones and No. 1 prospect George Lombard Jr., according to MLB Pipeline, so Pittsburgh quickly called it a day. After all, for someone with the tremendous talent of Skenes, one would expect at least multiple top prospects along with potential everyday MLB players in order to pry him away from the Pirates organization.

After all, all Skenes did in his rookie campaign last year was capture the National League Rookie of the Year honours and finish as a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award. This season, he has been just as great, if not, even better, as he currently leads the MLB in ERA (1.92) and is among the top 5 in the league in innings pitched (178), strikeouts (203) and WHIP (0.92). With the young, rare talent practically already the face of the franchise as of this moment, it is going to take something mind-blowing for Pittsburgh to even consider dealing him.

For the Yankees prospects, Jones may have some decent value given the power production he has shown in the minors for New York this season with 33 home runs and 73 RBIs while batting above .270 in 108 games to date. But for Lombard, he has struggled since earning his promotion to Double-A, batting just .216 with a .698 OPS, along with just eight home runs, 35 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 105 games with Somerset. The Yankees would need to make their offer much more convincing that that to land Skenes.

On the bright side, with the failure of the Yankees to recruit the 23-year-old right-hander, the Blue Jays won’t have to worry about one of the top pitchers in all of baseball joining their division to torment them for years to come. That failure might just be enough for Toronto to run away with the American League East title, along with giving them potentially the upper hand in the pitching matchup if the Jays were to meet the Yankees in the playoffs.