Paul Skenes Responds to Yankees Trade Rumors After Livvy Dunne Tried to Buy Babe Ruth's Apartment

It's been awhile since someone tried connecting Paul Skenes to the New York Yankees, so luckily Livvy Dunne's attempt to purchase an apartment in the city previously owned by Babe Ruth brought it back into the spotlight.

Asked by Jon Heyman of the New York Post if Dunne's attempted real-estate investment was a signal Skenes might be interested in playing for the Yankees, the reigning NL Cy Young winner called that a "stretch" to make.

"That's probably reading a little deeper into it than what is true," Skenes said. "If you're a baseball fan, you're probably a Babe Ruth fan."

Dunne, who has been dating Skenes since 2023 when they were athletes at LSU, recently revealed she was going to purchase Ruth's Upper West side apartment for $1.59 million before it was denied by the building's co-op board.

"Honestly, it wasn't financial. It could have been, for all I know, they could have been Alabama fans and I went to LSU," Dunne said on TikTok (h/t Jacki Thrapp of the New York Post). "Maybe they didn't want a public figure living there, but I was literally supposed to get the keys and that week they denied me."

Rumblings about Skenes and the Yankees first started last offseason when a report came out in which an anonymous Pittsburgh Pirates player was quoted as saying he has heard the star pitcher say "multiple times" he wants to play for New York.

Skenes dismissed the story when asked about it after winning the 2025 NL Cy Young award. The Yankees did reportedly attempt to inquire about his availability prior to the trade deadline last year, but the Pirates had no interest in listening.

There may come a time when Skenes does end up on the Yankees, but the idea of it happening anytime in the near-future is silly when he is under team control to the Pirates through the 2029 season.

The Pirates are also in the mix for a playoff spot in the NL right now with a 52-49 record, so they have even less motivation to entertain trading Skenes. They own the final wild-card spot two weeks away from the trade deadline on Aug. 3.