![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/paul-skenes-pittsburgh-pirates_a21c40.jpg\")
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(Photo by Rich Storry\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
On March 26, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported<\/a> that the New York Yankees<\/a> were willing to make a blockbuster move for Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> ace Paul Skenes. <\/p>\n \u201cSources say the Yankees were prepared to offer four top prospects last July,\u201d Heyman wrote. \u201cIt isn\u2019t clear who those were, but as of the deadline, their best prospect package might have included some combination of Cam Schlittler (who\u2019s now establishing himself as a potential ace), George Lombard Jr., Spencer Jones and Carlos Lagrange, or possibly others. <\/p>\n \u201cSchlittler and Ben Rice are the young players most coveted by other teams, and in at least all other instances, the Yankees have been super protective of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid this report from Heyman, former MLB<\/a> general manager Jim Bowden believes that if the Yankees had been willing to offer this haul for Skenes, the Pirates should\u2019ve accepted it. <\/p>\n \u201cSo the Yankees should not have offered what is being said they offered,\u201d Bowden said on the March 31 edition of \u201cFoul Territory.\u201d<\/a> \u201cIf they did offer it, I don\u2019t have confirmation they offered it. But based on the report that\u2019s there, the Pirates should have gone ahead and closed the deal immediately for me. So let\u2019s kind of go through why I view it that way. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd I love Paul Skenes, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I know that when his free\u2011agent days are up, he\u2019s not going to be able to sign long term in Pittsburgh. They\u2019re not going to pay him $400 million or whatever it\u2019s going to take at that time.\u201c<\/p>\n Pirates Would Have Benefitted From Yankees\u2019 Reported Offer<\/p>\n Moreover, Bowden says that the players the Yankees reportedly offered for Skenes were under cost control for multiple years and wouldn\u2019t demand the money their star pitcher will likely command to remain long-term in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m Pittsburgh and I got offered those four guys that I could control for six years and not have to pay any of them for three years, I have a better chance of winning with those four guys, and I have a better chance of winning longer with those four guys,\u201c Bowden added. <\/p>\n \u201cSo if in fact they were offered that, which I highly doubt, Ben Cherington should have made that deal immediately and called a press conference.\u201c<\/p>\n Carlos Lagrange Left Good Impression During Spring Training<\/p>\n Lagrange is one of the players who caught attention this past spring training for the Yankees, even though he didn\u2019t make the Opening Day roster, as he was sent down to minor league camp<\/a>. One of the players that Lagrange left a good impression on is Yankees star\u00a0Aaron Judge<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime you can run up to 103 [mph], and he has a great feel for his off-speed pitches; that\u2019s a lethal combo,\u201c\u00a0Judge told Meredith Marakovits on YES Network<\/a> on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n \u201cSo just excited for his future, excited for what he can do on the mound for us, but Lagrange, hey, I\u2019m excited. He\u2019s going to have a bright future with us, and I\u2019m looking forward to his debut whenever that comes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Yankees\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Rich Storry\/Getty Images) On March 26, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-655193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkyankees","14":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116325860300257893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}