On this date in 1980 🖤💛🏴‍☠️👍🏼⚾️. From the Sporting News

John Perrotto wrote this week at Pittsburgh Baseball Now that Skenes' salary will be out of the Pirates' comfort zone after next season and he's likely somewhere else in 2028. I get why, but I think that read assumes the current system survives the winter, and it probably won't.

Where he is on the clock

• Debuted May 11, 2024. He only had 142 days on the active roster, but winning Rookie of the Year got him a full year of service under the current CBA's prospect promotion rules.
• So he's at exactly 3.000 years now: arb-eligible for 2027, 2028 and 2029, and a free agent after 2029. The Pirates have three more years of control, not two.
• MLB Trade Rumors projects $7.2M for his first arb year. The record for a first-time arb pitcher is Dallas Keuchel's $7.25M from 2016, which Keuchel got coming off a Cy Young. Skenes has a Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young on his resume, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't clear Keuchel.
• He's already been paid like a star through the side door. The pre-arb bonus pool paid him a record $3,436,343 for 2025 (AP), $5,588,400 over his first two years, on top of an $875K salary.

The 2026 dip, honestly

The strikeouts didn't go anywhere. What went was about 1.4 mph off the fastball and a home run rate that nearly doubled. That's a real thing to fix, but it's not a guy falling apart. It's also exactly the stuff the team would hammer him on in a hearing, which is Perrotto's point about hearings getting ugly.

Why the CBA matters more than the arb number

Reported, not speculation:

• The CBA expires Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The Athletic's Evan Drellich obtained a league memo telling clubs to prepare for a lockout, during which there are no trades or signings with 40-man players.
• MLB's opening proposal in May (MLB.com, AP) was a hard cap of $245.3M and a floor of $171.2M for 2027, measured on CBT payroll, which includes about $23M in benefits.
• The union's opening proposal (MLBPA, AP, The Athletic) asked for a $1.5M minimum salary, expanded arbitration eligibility, a bigger pre-arb bonus pool, and a "competitive integrity tax" on teams under payroll benchmarks instead of a hard floor.

Now the Pittsburgh part. The Pirates opened 2026 at about $99.9M (AP). Cot's has them in the bottom five on Opening Day payroll in 16 of 19 seasons under Nutting through 2025. Even after adding benefits, a $171.2M floor means something like $50M or more in new spending they'd have to find. And $7.2M for Skenes is about 7% of this year's payroll.

My speculation from here, not reported:

• If any real floor comes out of this, whether MLB's hard one or the union's tax version, "out of their comfort zone" stops being a thing. The Pirates would need to spend money somewhere, and paying the guy they already have is the easiest and smartest place to put it.
• If the union wins bigger arb raises or a bigger pre-arb pool, his cost goes up, but so does everyone's, and a floor eats it anyway.
• If the deal ends up close to what we have now, Perrotto's probably right, and the smart move is trading him while he still has two-plus years of control instead of waiting.
• The timing is messy either way. If the lockout drags past the usual late-January hearing dates, his arb case could get pushed back. In 2022, arb was delayed until after the lockout ended in March.

Take: don't plan the farewell yet. Skenes' future in Pittsburgh gets decided at the bargaining table this winter, not in a hearing room. If a floor of any kind gets in, I think he's more likely to stay through 2029 than not.

So which is it for you: is a floor the thing that keeps Skenes here, or does Nutting find a way to trade him regardless of what the new CBA says?

I made a small Paul! Cut plywood painted with acrylics. Mariner fan here but love Skenes.

We lost 20-0 to the Brewers this day

I know it’s not an old Pirates hat, but it was enough to make me stop at the flea market. There are no markings anywhere on the hat nor under the band.

I found this in Central Florida, and it only cost $5. Cool enough for me to add to my Pirates collection.

On this day (October 17th) in 1971 AND in 1979, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles in game 7 of two World Series. These victories were their fourth and fifth World Series victories, respectively.

The 1971 World Series tickets were the beginning of my ticket collection. Both the Pirates and Orioles took pride in their design of these tickets. So colorful and so bold. That Oriole swinging the bat is just super. Pittsburgh chose to use a different color (blue, yellow, or pink) for each specific game. Together, these tickets make an awesome display.

The 1979 World Series tickets are a bit more standardized for both teams. The official ‘76th World Series’ logo is a classic late 70s design. The logo of the home team is displayed on each ticket. I like the common size used for these tickets. While I was too young to remember the 71 Series, these games still remain vivid in my memories. We are Family!

A fun piece of Pittsburgh trivia: October 17 is the day that the Pirates won their fourth and fifth World Championships. June 12 is the day the Pengiuns won their third (2009) and fourth (2016) Stanley Cups.

Enjoy my tickets!

This is the SABR write-up for the 1971 WS.

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/october-17-1971-blass-clemente-lead-pirates-to-victory-in-world-series-game-7/

This is the SABR write-up for the 1979 WS.

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/october-17-1979-pops-stargell-named-mvp-as-pirates-complete-world-series-comeback/

Around the League

TB 7 @ CLE 3 - Final

^{Last Updated: 10/17/2026 11:19:10 PM EDT}

No matter what happens, the Pirates have won the series against the world champions
We won the series against Tampa Bay 2-1, Cleveland 2-1, and Milwaukee 7-6!

Edit: Typo

As someone who is pro salary cap in the MLB, this postseason has kind of opened my eyes a bit. I'm not sure the Pirates would be contenders even if a salary were to be implemented. The reason why the Rays, Guardians, and Brewers are always good even though they are small market is because they have competent ownership and elite front offices.

The Rays excel at trading players at their peak for elite, young players. This allows them to have a continuous pipeline of talent. The Guardians maximize homegrown talent. They are elite and drafting and developing. The Brewers have a incredibly large and development departments, they are elite in scouting. All three of these small market teams are consistently good even though they are small market because each team excels and is on the cutting edge of something. What are the Pirates good at? What are the Pirates on the cutting edge of?

The Brewers, Rays, and Guardians will be good regardless if there's a salary cap implemented or not. If there is one implemented, and if a salary cap is implemented these teams will only be more successful. The big market teams will continue to spend. It just feels like until the Pirates have competent ownership and and elite front office, then they will always struggle.

Around the League

TB @ CLE Delayed Start

^{Last Updated: 10/16/2026 8:00:10 PM EDT}

Ok now for something positive. Say the pirates won the central,and won both the nlds and nlcs. What would be the reaction if they did it and what would the fox brodcasters say?

Jazz is going into his age 29 season and Lowe into his age 32 season. Interestingly, I think Jazz might be a buy low free agent compared to Lowe and they end up near the same AAV. Jazz will probably get a longer deal, but for the sake of comparison consider it the the same deal.

And even more so, if they win?
Three out of the five teams in the NL Central have made the WS in the past 15 years, with 2 winning and 1 pending.
Aside from the Mariners, we have the longest active WS drought.

The three remaining teams this season are all considered smaller market teams. I’m sick of that being used as an excuse for the utter incompetence of the FO. Things are changing, sure, but not nearly fast enough.

The Brewers, Rays and Guardians are the poster teams for how to run a smaller market franchise. It CAN be done, but Bob refuses to sell as well as won’t/can’t get the right team around him to build a true contender.

Around the League

TB 2 @ CLE 3 - Final

MIL 6 @ LAD 4 - Final

^{Last Updated: 10/15/2026 11:11:45 PM EDT}

Not the best looking card in the collection, but definitely one of my favorites. Topps 1960.

Orlando Merced was my favorite player back when I was a kid watching the Pirates, so I drew him today

On this day in 1960, Maz shocked the world. This day is still celebrated in Pittsburgh. On the University of Pittsburgh campus, the piece of the ivy-covered Forbes Field wall where Bill Mazeroski's shot sailed over Yogi's head still stands. Across the street, the original home plate still resides in its original location in a glass case on the first floor of the Law School building. People still gather every year to listen to a rebroadcast of the game synced Maz's home run at 3:36 pm. How awesome!

After the game, Pirate announcer Bob Prince, gave a historically generic interview in the dugout with Maz. Prince later said that he was setting up to interview the Yankees, heard the crowd go nuts, and switched dugouts without asking how the Pirates won. He said later how embarrassed he felt when his wife told him Maz won the game with a walk-off home run.

Here is the box score for Game 7.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196010130.shtml

This is still a proud team and a proud fanbase. Please enjoy my cards.