Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes had a slightly more animated reaction to winning the National League Cy Young award Wednesday night than he did when he won the Rookie of the Year in 2024.

Slightly.

Paul Skenes winning Rookie of the Year: ????Paul Skenes winning Cy Young: ???? https://t.co/Vw8ANXAoEs pic.twitter.com/hAymCO5Qxs

— MLB (@MLB) November 13, 2025

Electric, indeed. The double fist pump really sold the excitement.

Like last year, at least Skenes’ girlfriend, former LSU gymnast and Sports Illustrated model Livvy Dunne was by his side to help exude some effervescent, celebratory vibes.

Dunne is also probably thrilled to have her New York City real estate adventure sewn up. After going public with her failed bid to buy a place in Babe Ruth’s old building, Dunne landed a pad in the West Village where the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Nelly Furtado and even (wait for it) former Penguins Stanley Cup champion Carl Hagelin used to live.

Carl > Jerry > Babe. Obviously. Consider it a blessing in disguise, Liv.

At least Skenes will have a place to crash during homestands when he’s a Yankee soon.

Oops. Did I write that on Cy Young celebration day?

Don’t blame me. Blame Jeannette’s own Randy Miller of NJ.com. He’s the one who published a story Wednesday morning that cited an unnamed “Pirates teammate” of Skenes, claiming that Skenes has repeatedly said he wants to be a Yankee.

“Skenes has ‘no confidence’ the Pirates ever are going to win with him in Pittsburgh,” Miller said of the player’s comments. “He’s ‘hoping for a trade’ well before he can become a free agent after the 2029 season.”

If that happens, maybe Skenes’ fist-pump celebration will come a little bit more naturally when he gets the phone call in private as opposed to being in front of the MLB TV cameras with the whole baseball world watching.

Predictably, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington “dismissed” the story in Las Vegas at this week’s general manager meetings. Naturally, Pirates fans on social media and the internet shouted it down, and Skenes attempted to tamp down the story.

“I don’t know where that came from. The goal is to win,” Skenes said via TribLive’s Kevin Gorman. “I don’t know the reporter that reported it. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that, but the goal is to win — and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh. I’m on the Pirates; my goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the city of Pittsburgh. The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh, and I want to be a part of the group that did that.

“The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the group, a part of the 26 guys that change that.”

Of course, nowhere in that quote did Skenes deny wanting to be in New York or anywhere else by 2029. Nor did he say that he’d prefer to sign a contract extension that would take him beyond his arbitration years.

He just talked about being here and wanting to win while he is here.

Sure. Who wouldn’t?

Oddly, maybe all this conversation about when Skenes is going to leave Pittsburgh on a day when we should all be celebrating his accomplishments here is a good thing.

Maybe all this dialogue about Skenes’ inevitable departure will be motivation for ownership and Cherington to spend more money and make aggressive offseason acquisitions to put a better team around Skenes while he is actually here.

Nice theory, isn’t it?

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Granted, I probably have more of a chance of buying a condo in the same building as Dunne and Hagelin than the Pirates do of buying a power bat that’s worth a darn. But it’d at least be fun to see them try.

Could I at least rent Ruth’s place, then?

No? The condo board would deny me too?

Understood. I wouldn’t want me as a neighbor either.

I’ve been following the Pirates for 50 years now. Forty-eight of those years have ended without the team advancing beyond their first playoff round.

So, in a strange way, the doom and gloom predictions about how soon Skenes might leave town don’t make me feel all that gloomy. It just feels like part of the process. As a result, I just enjoy the brief rays of sunshine on the days they happen to burst through the clouds.

Of late, about 99% of them involve Skenes.

I can pretty easily divorce the impending depression of seeing him pitch in pinstripes or Dodger Blue someday, and celebrate the fact that this city has a Cy Young winner for the first time since 1990.

Pardon my nihilistic view of the franchise, but, yes, to Skenes’ previous point, like those other 29 fanbases, I also expect them to lose.

I also expect all of their good players to depart as soon as they possibly can, or as soon as the franchise feels the need to trade them before they start to make big money.

In both cases, I’d love for Skenes and the Pirates to prove me wrong.

Trust me, my fist pump would be more emphatic than Skenes’ was Wednesday night.

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