If you strip away the noise of a lost season, the empty seats, the cold bats, the standings page you learned to stop refreshing, you’re left with the thing that actually matters for Pittsburgh: a wave of young arms that arrived ahead of schedule and with real bite. This wasn’t smoke and mirrors. The Pirates finished fifth in MLB in runs allowed and led the league with 19 shutouts.
That’s not the profile of a team stumbling into good fortune; that’s the profile of a staff with multiple pathways to win once the lineup catches up. In a year where Paul Skenes sucked up every national headline, deservedly, the most encouraging development for 2026 and beyond is that the rotation depth behind him looks…very real.