MLB keeps doing Pirates dirty with frustrating Opening Day trend

After a long, eventful offseason, Opening Day is here. The Pittsburgh Pirates will travel to New York to take on the Mets with a new-look roster that promises better fortunes than the past decade of Pirates baseball has granted.

Of course, much like over said past decade, the Pirates won't be at home for Opening Day. Their home opener will come on April 3 against the Baltimore Orioles, after the first two series of the season have already been played.

In fact, the last time the Pirates played at home on Opening Day was back in 2016. The Buccos beat the Cardinals on that day, which apparently enacted some kind of cosmic punishment from the league, seeing as it's been 10 long years since.

Naturally, this begs the question: Will PNC Park ever get to play host to Opening Day again?

Pirates must force MLB to move Opening Day to Pittsburgh in 2026

There are reasons why this streak is ongoing. Weather is one, seeing as Pittsburgh isn't exactly known for its resort-like conditions in March and April.

However, that logic falls apart when you point out that the Pirates are heading to New York for Opening Day in 2026. One of the meccas of baseball? Sure, but the Big Apple is hardly the ideal locale to play a baseball game while the last remnants of winter still swirl.

Performance is the more obvious indicator here, seeing as the Pirates haven't made the playoffs since 2015 and haven't had a winning record since 2018.

Even that argument loses some steam when you realize teams like the Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox — two teams mired in perpetual irrelevance — had the privilege of hosting Opening Day in their home ballparks last year. But winning is always the great equalizer, as the Pirates opened both the 2014 and 2016 seasons at home after making the playoffs in the previous campaign.

On that front, at least, there is good news. This is almost certainly the best collection of talent the front office has put together since Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte were in their respective primes, headlined by a loaded pitching staff with the best pitcher in the world.

They may not be the favorites in a deep division, but their odds of success haven't been this high since the last time March baseball was played in PNC. Heck, FanGraphs even gives them better odds to make the playoffs than the Brewers this year.

A trip back to October would probably be enough to get the schedule makers to throw Pirates fans a bone in 2027. Even if they fall just short of that, though, isn't it about time we get to see Paul Skenes pitch the top of the first on Opening Day?