Pirates GM Ben Cherington says trading ace Paul Skenes is 'not at all part of the conversation'

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Pirates GM Ben Cherington says trading ace Paul Skenes is 'not at all part of the conversation'

2025-05-23 11:40 Last Updated At：11:50

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates are reeling, and just about everything is on the table for a last-place team that has already fired its manager and packed a half-decade's worth of public-relations missteps into two months.

Well, except for one thing: trading ace Paul Skenes.

Asked on Thursday if flipping the reigning National League Rookie of the Year is a consideration for a club woefully lacking in impactful position-player prospects, general manager Ben Cherington gave an atypically brief response.

“No, it's not part of the conversation at all,” Cherington said flatly.

Pittsburgh entered a four-game series against NL Central rival Milwaukee already 11 games out of playoff position, thanks in large part to an offense that ranks last or next-to-last in nearly every major category: from runs, slugging percentage and OPS (all 30th) to home runs and batting average (both 29th).

The Pirates at least showed a small flicker of life at the plate in an 8-5 loss to the Brewers a few hours after Cherington spoke, scoring five runs for the first time in 27 games. Their 26-game streak of four runs or fewer tied a major league record set by four other teams, most recently the then-California Angels in 1969.

Yet it was telling that Pittsburgh also left 10 runners on base, typical of a season in which the Pirates have consistently been unable to take advantage of what few opportunities they create.

Not exactly what the team had in mind during spring training, when everyone from Cherington to Skenes to manager Derek Shelton — who was jettisoned two weeks ago and replaced by Don Kelly — talked about the need for Pittsburgh to take another step forward after consecutive 76-86 seasons.

Instead, the Pirates have been stuck in reverse from opening day, even when Skenes starts. Pittsburgh is just 3-5 in his eight starts, the latest loss a 1-0 setback in Philadelphia last weekend in which Skenes limited the Phillies to three hits while throwing the first complete game of his career.

Skenes, who turns 23 next week, has been all-in on the Pirates since being called up a year ago. He's also under team control for the rest of the decade and won't become arbitration-eligible until after 2026, making him one of the biggest bargains in the majors.

While Pittsburgh has locked down players like two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds and third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes to long-term deals, they are a pittance by MLB standards compared to what Skenes might command one day should his career continue on its current trajectory.

The Pirates are perennially one of the most frugal teams in the majors. Their opening day payroll this season was just under $88 million. Only the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay, the Athletics and Miami spent less.

Even so, Pittsburgh has received little return on its investment. While the bullpen has been a bit of a mess, the starting rotation has been solid. Skenes (2.44), Mitch Keller (3.88), Andrew Heaney (2.91) and Bailey Falter (3.50) all have ERAs under 4.00, yet they also have a combined record of 11-21.

The issue has been a punchless lineup that is largely nondescript outside of Reynolds, franchise icon Andrew McCutchen and center fielder Oneil Cruz.

Pittsburgh has one of the deeper pools of pitching prospects in the majors — a list that includes hard-throwing 22-year-old Bubba Chandler and Mike Burrows, who gave up four runs over five innings Thursday in his first major league start — but the cupboard of homegrown position players who are on the cusp of the big leagues remains pretty bare five-plus years into Cherington's tenure.

Catcher Henry Davis, the top overall pick in the 2021 draft, remains a work in progress nearly two full years after his major league debut. Second baseman Nick Gonzales, a first-rounder in 2020, is recovering from an ankle injury and has yet to establish himself as an everyday player. Former first-round picks Termarr Johnson (2022) and Konnor Griffin (2024) are still years away.

So far, the only callups from Triple-A have been mostly injury-related, not performance-related.

“We want guys from Triple-A to pound the door down,” Cherington said. "That would be good. I still think that can happen this year. We want more of it over time. ... Everybody knows we’ve got to score more runs. That’s not going to happen just by saying it and hoping for it. You’ve got to do the work to do it.”

Cherington remains optimistic that the major league team will start to turn the corner over the final 110ish games, and he's certain Skenes will be a part of it no matter which way it goes.

“We've just got to get better,” Cherington said. "Let’s play better baseball, and that’s going to lead to winning more games. Then, let’s wake up and see where that takes us when we get to July.”

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A fire in an Swiss ski resort bar has left about 40 people dead

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Axel Clavier felt like he was suffocating inside the Swiss Alpine bar where moments before he'd been ringing in the new year with friends and dozens of other revelers.

The 16-year-old from Paris escaped the inferno, which broke out after midnight Thursday, by forcing a window open with a table. But about 40 other partygoers died, including one of Clavier's friends, falling victim to one of the worst tragedies in Switzerland's history.

The blaze also injured about 115 people, most of them seriously, as it ripped through the crowded Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, police said.

Clavier told The Associated Press that “two or three” of his friends remained missing hours after the disaster.

Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the community is “devastated.”

Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased.

Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire.

“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.

She later said the number of people who were in the bar is “unknown,” and its maximum capacity will be part of the investigation.

“For the time being, we don’t have any suspects,” she added, when asked if anyone had been arrested over the fire. “An investigation has been opened, not against anyone, but to better understand the circumstances of this dramatic fire.”

Clavier, the Parisian teenager, said he didn’t see the fire start, but did see waitresses arrive with Champagne bottles with burning sparklers. He lost his jacket, shoes, phone and bank card while fleeing, but “I am still alive and it’s just stuff.”

“I’m still in shock,” he added.

Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.

One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.

Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.

“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.

Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.

In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on the local population to show caution in the coming days to avoid accidents that could further strain the area's already overwhelmed medical resources.

With high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region's snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit. The resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February. The town's Crans-sur-Sierre golf club stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the largely ceremonial job, said many emergency staff had been “confronted by scenes of indescribable violence and distress.”

“This Thursday must be the time of prayer, unity and dignity,” he said. “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help.”

Dazio reported from Berlin and Leicester reported from Paris. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.