Bob Pompiani

It was tough, kind of.

We always expected, you and I did, and Harry did, for a contract to get done.

But it feels a lot better that he's making his debut and you know that all that needs to happen is some T's get crossed and some I's get dotted.

And now you can fully embrace the guy.

Like, Skeens...

Look, it's really hard because every time he pitches, we're all trying to soak it, and we talk about that frequently.

And the economics of baseball just make it impossible for a team like the Pirates to sign schemes.

Now, that could change next year.

We'll see.

We'll get into some of that with Mackey.

But, I mean, this is a guy who can make $500 million.

Yeah.

The Pirates are never going to pay a player $50 million a season.

It's just not realistic.

The best thing that they could do with Skeens is try to win with him, and then you've got Connor Griffin now here, and you hope that the return in the Skeens trade can fold into an already good core you've got, and you can continue to win even without Skeens.

But...

Connor Griffin's different, A, because he's going to play every day, and B, you know he's going to be here.

He's probably not going to be here for nine years.

That's just not the way it works.

But is he going to be here for seven?