You know how I know the Pirates exist to literally feed the big markets?
Skenes will have a year shaved off his service time requirements for the top 2 finish in the ROTY vote, which he'll surely achieve.
He was also named a finalist for the CY Young award, which is incredible, and that would have netted us an extra draft pick.
IF, he had been on the opening day roster.
So, we now have 1 less year of Skenes AND we get NO comp for his dominant year and 1 year less of service time. Because we didn't have the best P prospect in a generation, on the f***ing opening day roster.
They could have literally had him up for the first week and then sent him down, and returned him when they originally did, and he'd qualify for a quality draft pick = more draft pool $$$