As the Pittsburgh Pirates stumbled to a disappointing start to the season, the idea that they should consider trading star right-hander Paul Skenes has become a hot-button topic in baseball circles.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington smirked when asked about trading Skenes on Thursday afternoon, entertaining the question if not the possibility. His answer was downright dismissive.

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

After being selected No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, starting for the National League in the All-Star Game and winning NL Rookie of the Year honors last season, Skenes is 3-5 with a 2.44 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and seven quality starts. The Pirates are 3-7 in his 10 starts this season and 18-15 in his 33 career starts.

The Pirates have scored a combined 10 runs in Skenes’ past six starts, including three consecutive one-run losses. The 6-foot-6 right-hander had nine strikeouts over eight innings Sunday for his first career complete game but still suffered a 1-0 loss at the Philadelphia Phillies.

With the offense providing such little run support for Skenes, the baseball world views the Pirates as wasting a generational talent in his pre-arbitration years, when his $875,000 salary is a fraction of starting pitchers of his caliber. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand recently have posed the possibility of trading Skenes.

Cherington spent the majority of a 25-minute media session talking about the Pirates’ starting pitching, which is plentiful in prospects even after Jared Jones underwent surgery on his right elbow Wednesday.

Cherington confirmed that Jones opted for revision surgery, using an Internal Brace to repair his ulnar collateral ligament instead of reconstruction at the recommendation of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister.

“We believe that this procedure was the right procedure for him and gives him a chance to pitch successfully for a long time,” Cherington said. “We all know pitching. There’s no forever guarantee with it. We know that with any pitcher.”

Cherington also knows that pitchers can make a successful return from Tommy John surgery, especially with No. 15 prospect Mike Burrows making his first major-league start Thursday night against the Milwaukee Brewers two years after reconstructive surgery.

That the Pirates optioned reliever-turned-starter Carmen Mlodzinski to Triple-A Indianapolis and promoted Burrows came as a surprise to some, given that 22-year-old right-hander Bubba Chandler is ranked among baseball’s top three prospects.

Where Chandler is 2-1 with a 2.17 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 56 strikeouts against 16 walks in 37 1/3 innings over nine starts at Indianapolis, Burrows was 2-1 with a 2.51 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 41 strikeouts against 11 walks in 32 1/3 innings over eight appearances (seven starts).

“I mean, Michael Burrows has checked all those boxes, too, right? And he’s performed really well,” Cherington said. “We think Michael has earned this opportunity.”

Cherington noted that Mlodzinski and Thomas Harrington were built up to be ready to contribute early in the season but “chose to go slower” with Chandler, who had only two seasons as a full-time starting pitcher after attempting to be a two-way player in his first season as a pro.

Four of the Pirates’ top 10 prospects are starting pitchers in Triple-A who were drafted by Cherington, with Chandler joined by Harrington (No. 3), lefty Hunter Barco (No. 5) and Braxton Ashcraft (No. 7). Harrington made his MLB debut April 1 at Tampa Bay.

“We feel very good about that group of young pitching, most of which is in Indy and some of which has touched the big leagues this year, and Burrows now will (Thursday),” Cherington said. “But you can go to Ashcraft, Barco, Burrows now here, and Chandler, Harrington, Mlodzinski now in Triple-A and there are others. But you just think about that group, that’s a group of young starting pitchers who we believe either already have contributed to the Pirates in 2025 or we hope will in 2025, and we hope meaningfully with all of those guys.”

The problem for the Pirates is their failure to develop position players, especially hitters. They don’t have much help at the ready at the upper levels of the minors, as No. 2 prospect Konnor Griffin is at Low-A Bradenton, No. 4 Termarr Johnson at Double-A Altoona and No. 6 Nick Yorke is slugging only .357 at Indianapolis.

“We’re digging into that every single day,” Cherington said, expressing confidence in both the assessment and development of hitters. “We’re seeing some signs of progress. We need more, no question about it. We want guys from Triple-A to pound the door down. That would be good. I still think that can happen this year. We want more of it over time. There’s opportunity there. We have to stay focused on it. 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.”

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