Latest WBC news has Pirates fans dying for better Paul Skenes situation in Pittsburgh

There’s something both exhilarating and deeply depressing about the latest World Baseball Classic news if you’re a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

On one hand, Paul Skenes — our Paul Skenes — is taking the mound for Team USA alongside two of the biggest pitching stars in the sport: Tarik Skubal, a two-time American League Cy Young winner who is the best left-handed pitcher on the planet, and David Bednar, a former Pirates fan favorite now closing games in pinstripes for the New York Yankees.

That trio should be must-see television. That trio screams dominance. That trio looks like something ripped straight out of October baseball.

And that’s exactly the problem. Because for a few weeks in the WBC, Skenes gets to exist in a world Pirates fans desperately wish he lived in every day — one filled with star power, national recognition and actual expectations to win.

Back in Pittsburgh? He’s still expected to save a franchise almost entirely by himself.

Paul Skenes gets a dream scenario in WBC with Tarik Skubal as his co-ace and a David Bednar reunion

Let’s start with Skubal. This is what a franchise ace looks like when everything around him clicks. Cy Youngs. Primetime respect. A team that, at minimum, acts like it understands what it has. Skubal didn’t just become elite — Detroit built a narrative around him, invested in the idea that stars matter, and leaned into the spotlight (for a brief time, anyway).

Now look at Skenes. Same talent tier. Bigger fastball. Bigger aura. Bigger moment potential. Smaller help.

And then there’s Bednar — the part that really twists the knife. The Pittsburgh kid, a homegrown All-Star closer, someone who actually wanted to be here, is now pitching for the Yankees… and for Team USA.

Watching Bednar share a staff with Skenes on the international stage is going to feel surreal, because it’s impossible not to think about the alternate reality –– the one where Skenes hands the ball to Bednar with a lead and he slams the door in the ninth at PNC Park.

Instead, that version of the Pirates exists only in highlight reels and hypotheticals.

This isn’t about pretending Bednar alone would have fixed everything. It’s about what his departure symbolized: another moment where Pittsburgh chose the long view, the asset play, the “maybe someday,” instead of building something now around a generational arm.

Team USA’s pitching staff is going to be stacked with names casual fans recognize instantly — Skubal, Skenes, Bednar — and Pirates fans are going to be left explaining, once again, why one of the most electric pitchers on the planet still doesn’t have a roster worthy of his talents.

That’s the cruel irony of the WBC for Pittsburgh. Skenes finally gets to pitch in meaningful games, with elite teammates, under bright lights… and it won’t be in black and gold.

Instead, Pirates fans will be watching a glimpse of what’s possible — what should be possible — and wondering how long the organization expects lightning to strike before it ever builds a storm around it.

Because the longer Skenes shines on stages like this, the harder it becomes to ignore the truth: he looks like a superstar, he’s treated like a superstar by everyone else, and the Pirates are running out of time to give him a superstar situation.