This LA Angels trade package could bring Paul Skenes home at a terrifying cost

As rumors of generational ace Paul Skenes landing on the trade block ramp up, Angels fans are just one of 28 other fan bases that are dreaming of the soon-to-be 23-year-old taking the mound for them in 2025 and beyond.

For the Halo faithful, the prospect of landing Skenes would appear even sweeter as the flamethrowing righty grew up as a massive Angels fan, and the prospect of him taking over the mantle of face of the franchise from Mike Trout would be sweet as can be for all involved.

When the Pirates rolled into the Big A earlier this year, there was a lot of chatter about Skenes' fond memories at the stadium watching the team growing up, but his future signing with the club seemed like a pipe dream.

For one thing, the all-world ace doesn't hit free agency until 2030, and if Arte Moreno is still running the show at that point, it's highly questionable that he'd do what it takes to bring the El Toro High School product back home.

Naturally, that might lead fans to believe the easier path to acquisition would be via trade. Not only would it not require the immediate gargantuan financial outlay to which Moreno has become so adverse, but it would give Skenes time to prove his worth and show Arte that he can put butts in seats and open up the revenue floodgates, perhaps convincing the mercurial owner to pry open his dusty checkbook and lavish the star with the hypothetical extension he deserves.

There's a problem here though, and it's not that Pirates general manager has shot down the idea of trading Skenes now, after all, general managers say a lot of stuff that ultimately isn't true. Instead, the problem is that trading for Paul Skenes would absolutely gut the Angels' roster in the present and in the future.

The Angels' present and future rosters would be decimated by a hypothetical Paul Skenes trade

FanSided's MLB Insider Robert Murray posits that any hypothetical Paul Skenes trade at this point in time would have to be a Herschel Walker-esque package. Therein lies the problem, not just for the Angels, but for the rest of the league. How exactly does a team come up with that type of package without decimating their roster and becoming the new version of the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Paul Skenes and not much else.

For the Angels, the potential trade package would be especially damaging to both their short-and-long-term aspirations, and the club more than any other team, lacks the resources to pull off such a feat given their farm system is ranked dead last.

Pittsburgh is in dire need of young, cost-controlled offensive talent. Pitching helps, too, but given that Skenes comes with so much control left, they're going to want players that can help them both now and in the future.

Any package would start with Zach Neto and Logan O'Hoppe. Additionally, Pittsburgh will want at least two top-100 prospects, of which the Angels have exactly two, those two being Caden Dana and Christian Moore. Both Dana and Moore are in the back third of the top 100, and therefore aren't as valuable as the prospect hauls other clubs can offer.

Therefore, even more would be needed. Depending on Pittsburgh's desires, they could ask for Matthew Lugo to be included as well, or, they could opt for younger, high ceiling lottery tickets such as Joswa Lugo and/or Gabriel Davalillo.

In summation, the Angels would have to part with Neto, O'Hoppe, Dana, Moore, Joswa Lugo, plus another fringe prospect or two. And that would just be to start the conversation. Whatever package the Angels could put together would be easily beaten by high-ranking farm systems such as the Red Sox, Tigers, or Dodgers.

Lastly, even if the Angels were somehow able to convince the Pirates to accept their offer, their roster would be decimated both in the present and the foreseeable future without Neto, O'Hoppe, and all of their top, near major league-ready prospects.

The swap would make zero sense for either team as the best case scenario would be the Angels becoming the Pirates -- a team with a dominant ace and... nothing else. The Pirates return wouldn't make much sense either, as they'd top out where the Angels are now.

Paul Skenes donning a Halo uniform may be the ultimate dream, but it is just that, a dream with no chance of coming true.

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