This is a Generational Heist.....

The Boston Red Sox may be in a position to conduct a generational heist against the Pittsburgh Pirates and one of the best players in all of baseball. I'm here to break down how Jeff Passan going on the Pat McAfee Show has started an absolutely never-ending saga of conversation surrounding Paul Skeens and the likelihood of him being traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates as early as this season. I'm here to break down how the Boston Red Sox should be frontrunners if Skeens was available and what this would mean going forward for both organizations. We'll break down all of that on this episode of Red Sox Digest but first before we get to the news and information please do remember to subscribe to the channel as nearly 90% of you guys watching this video are not currently subscribed. We do appreciate all the love and support so thank you guys but now let's get to it and break down if there's really a chance of Paul Skeens landing in Boston. Now Paul Skeens up to this point in his two-year career has been simply phenomenal and there's no way around that. Last year it didn't seem like he was it seemed like he was still in college based off the numbers he was putting up in Pittsburgh absolutely dominant on the mound and it was kind of obvious he came out of LSU and from the start all the way until the finish he was simply gross and there's really no way around it and up to this point in the year he is once again gross and it doesn't matter if he's pitching against the Phillies the Diamondbacks it doesn't matter he's going to compete he's going to be performing at a very high level regardless of the team he is facing off against and up to this point in the year as a fan of baseball if you have not witnessed Paul Skeens yet you're missing out because again like I mentioned earlier the Phillies the Dodgers it doesn't matter the Diamondbacks he's going to go out on that mound and despite not having a whole lot of run support from the Pittsburgh Pirates team he's going to go out there and absolutely shove and he has done that a lot this year based off his baseball spot you can tell he's pretty damn good when it comes to the overall percentiles ranking amongst other starting pitchers in the MLB ranking in the top percentiles of fastball being low expected batting average expected blow up things like the barrel percentage as well as Paul Skeens is absolutely dominating and it's no surprise if you turn on the baseball game and you actually watch him log six seven even eight innings of work there is no surprise why the Pittsburgh Pirates last year called him up as early as they did and gave him the keys to flat out dominate for all of last year and it seems like he's going to dominate for the next 10 plus years in the MLB now the question is going to be is it going to be for the Pittsburgh Pirates well seems like Jeff Passon doesn't believe so and Jeff Passon also went on Pat McAfee and he had a bunch of conversations about the game of baseball where Paul Skeens inevitably came up because obviously McAfee and the rest of the crew on the McAfee show are dominantly from Pittsburgh and they have this conversation about Pittsburgh sports how they would they love the idea that Pittsburgh sports are going to be good and again they're not this Pittsburgh Pirates are not very good at baseball the offensive production that they are getting is at the bottom of the barrel duo now if you look at their starting rotation and the pieces that they have available currently with the fill pieces on the rise like Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler as well as Paul Skeens they might have a very very good three-headed monster in that starting rotation but outside of that are they going to be able to be competitive most likely not you have Andrew McCutcheon being one of the better offensive players on the Pittsburgh Pirates he's 40 41 years old he's been in the game of baseball for as long as I've been alive he he's cannot be your cornerstone to your offense at this point in his career don't get me wrong veteran leadership overall leadership in the sense of around the clubhouse as well as leading by example on the diamond Andrew McCutcheon is probably one of the top guys you would want on your roster but to be an everyday starter and to be a substantial piece to your actual organization in the sense of offensive production I'm not sure if that's really the route the Pirates should be going right now in the sense of probably resetting looking at going and looking for younger pieces to reset their franchise so Paul Skeens will want to stay in Pittsburgh and want to continue that that career in Pittsburgh now it shouldn't be but this is where the pass and pull really comes from the fact that the Pirates organization has been the way it has been up to this point the fact that Paul Skeen has been so damn good up to this point and the Pirates have him under control for five more seasons before he reaches free agency now the reason that is so important so impactful is because if the Pirates decide to hold on to and Paul Skeens continues to produce at the level which he has and up to this point in his career which again is only two years a year and a half later he's going to demand so much money in free agency that the Pittsburgh Pirates physically might not be able to spend and pay all of the money directly to him because it's one individual asset you guys don't know I'm not sure if I have I am not going to have it up I apologize but the total roster value of the Pittsburgh Pirates right now is 89 and contain 89 million dollars that's not a lot like the Dodgers have two players that are worth a billion and they have 89 million dollars total on their entire loss Paul Skeens is going to get more than that like every two years he's going to get more than 89 like Bregman right now for the Red Sox is getting 40 a year Paul Skeens is going to demand so much money and these are this is off the sports track again these are the filtered by starting pitcher so you do not have to try to filter in different names stuff like that just look at the overall value of these contracts and then you look at the AAV obviously Yamamoto got is the highest paid 325 million I apologize his AAV is 27 million just for this one player now am I saying Paul Skeens is going to get 27 to 30 million a year no I'm not saying that yet but there is a chance that a bidder goes out there and gives him all the money possible because again if he does make it in five years two free agencies and it's like it doesn't play out the way Vladimir Guerrero did they went out and they paid him all the money he wanted regardless of the signing bonus size regardless of the AAV regardless of the total years they were smart they said F it use all the money you want back up the brake truck right to his back door and unload it because if we let this wait and Vladimir Guerrero touches the open market and he can allow a bidding war to commence amongst Boston, New York, LA, Toronto, Cleveland all of these teams that were going to be in on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. his price would have tripled just like Juan Soto if the Yankees or if a team would have came out before he went to free it would have been the Yankees if here's 550 million dollars with 350 million dollar bonus there's a good chance they could probably land Soto before he gets to the free agency market and maybe maybe it is a bit steeper because Soto and his agent are apt they understand the value they understand the bidding war process and really what that is going to cause and the effect of that but you have to get ahead of this if you're the pirate if you allow schemes to hit the open market he's going to cause a bidding war and you have no chance of re-signing him not only because you haven't done anything to improve your offensive or the offensive side of your offense in this organization and outside of Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler and Paul Schemes again Chandler is a has a little bit ways to go before he's an MLB starter but obviously Jared Jones has been in and off of the injury report really hasn't been all that consistent Schemes has really been the lone guy for the entire organization field like that has been a model of consistency and someone that is a bright point for this organization and because of that should he want to get out of Pittsburgh should he he's an ultra competitor we know he wants to win we saw it at LSU we've seen it in the early stages of his MLB career for the Pirates and now he's signed up for WBC because he wants to be on a competitive stage with other elite level players if the Pirates don't go out there and offer him a substantial number they haven't offered anyone in a hundred years to take care of him for the rest of his career and just try to overwhelm him with the amount of money they're going to give him there's no way in no doubt in my mind he doesn't hit free agency in the next five years if not traded beforehand if the Pirates are smart and he's going to get paid a king's ransom because of the overall bidding value that is going to happen now a few things have to break down overall the starting rotation as of now for the Red Sox four guys Garrett Croce, Giolito, Bale, and Dobbins and that looks the way it does because of the IL looking this way Buehler, Crawford, Fitch, Howell, Murphy, and Sandoval all are still on the IL either still on the IL or displaced on the IL to be interesting to see when all these guys return but because of the amount of players on the IL you can question the depth of the Red Sox starting rotation right now obviously the bullpen looked good yesterday against the New York Mets but how far is the four-man rotation really going to take us until these guys return Buehler should be back pretty soon Crawford and Fitch should both be back pretty soon as well Sandoval and Howell again are going to miss a little bit more time until their return and this is just an interesting concept the idea that teams could be on the move there's going to be a lot of big name teams in the market for him and the idea of to reset the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise now they haven't had the greatest franchise success overall so the idea that it could be a discounted price because well they're just not running their organization correctly is a possibility now would I bet on it absolutely not but I would also would not give up both Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meier in a package together for one and Paul Sweeney yes Paul Sweeney is Paul Sweeney but to reset and give up two players that could be a part of this Red Sox organization not only for the next 10 years but possibly even the next 15 to 20 I think is too steep of a number for the Red Sox to give up in order to go out and get someone like Paul Sweeney who's one Tommy John injury away from missing at least a year and a half and then full rehabbing and possibly coming back to not be the same pitcher they once traded for I think this is going to be a very interesting dilemma for the Pittsburgh Pirates because well he he maintains so much value now the last thing we're going to close out with is this and this is something that we've really already said just in different ways we're just going to use the exact quote from Jeff Passant on the Pat McAfee show rather so this is in the midst of his conversation with McAfee discussing the Paul Sweeney's idea and really why Sweeney shouldn't want to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates and why the Pirates should look to trade him so what incentive does Paul Sweeney have to extend with the Pirates when the Pirates haven't shown the willingness from either Bob Nutting all the way down the ability to bring in guys who are going to make this team better the Pirates haven't shown that they are worthy of a Paul Sweeney's extension at this point again that is a direct quote from Jeff Passant on or from the Pat McAfee show this is a screenshot from where they're discussing it and it's he's really he's right he's 100 right the Pirates haven't really done anything to improve this roster in any dramatic fashion in order to win some games behind Paul Sweeney. Paul Sweeney won eight innings just his last start I believe it was three days ago against the Philadelphia Phillies who are a very credible baseball team and they lost one to nothing the the Pirates lost one to nothing to the Phillies Sweeney went eight innings he gave up one run and they lost he's dominant and they can't there's no help there offensively imagine this kid in Boston oh my god Duran, Devers, Bregman, Willier, Abreu the run support would be astronomical it's like when Garrett Posey gets run support just coming from the right-handed side I love this idea and honestly if you want to start packaging a few a few of these prospects without packaging one and two together I'm more than okay with having this conversation here's a way we can not give up Hunter Dobbins as well I think we call Pittsburgh just ask hey are you guys actually thinking about this are you is this something serious I like he's probably going to walk in five years would you like to trade him now for a lot of value and reset your franchise I just call and find out you know just play phone tag for a little bit and see what the Pirates are actually thinking on this entire idea because this could be a generational hype for the Boston Pirates I'll see you guys on the next one thank you for watching