The Pirates finally have the kind of Opening Day setup their fans have been waiting years to see: a home start at PNC Park. The catch is that Major League Baseball’s next labor fight could still blow it up.
Pittsburgh is set to open the 2027 season against the Athletics in a three-game series from March 25-27. With Opening Day landing on March 25, the Pirates would begin a season at home for the first time since 2016.
That’s a long wait for a club whose ballpark is one of the best backdrops in the sport, especially when the crowd has something real to latch onto.
The Pirates last opened at home on April 3, 2016, when they beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 39,500. At that point, Pittsburgh had just come off three straight postseason trips, and PNC Park felt like a place expecting another big summer.
That feeling hasn’t shown up often enough since then. Still, if the 2026 season ends with the Pirates in the postseason - or even making a strong push deep into September - the 2027 opener could serve as a clean continuation of that momentum.
The Athletics are a notable choice for the home opener, too. Pittsburgh has recently started its home slate against American League teams, hosting the Chicago White Sox in 2023, the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 and 2026, and the New York Yankees in 2025.
But those games were home openers, not the start of the season. This one is supposed to be both. And that’s where the uncertainty comes in.
MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and another lockout is a real possibility. If the league and the MLB Players Association can’t strike a new deal, spring training could be delayed and regular-season games could be lost.
That would put Pittsburgh’s long-awaited home Opening Day in jeopardy before fans ever get through the gates.
After years of losing, rebuilding and asking supporters to stay patient, the Pirates finally have a schedule that gives them something simple and overdue: the chance to open at home. Whether baseball lets them actually do it is another matter.
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Bruce Meyer, the MLBPAs interim executive director, turned up the pressure by pushing back on the familiar line that small-market clubs cannot hold onto elite players. He pointed to examples around the league and said the issue is less about market size than whether players feel treated fairly and believe a team is committed to winning, while also brushing off the future Yankee chatter around Skenes as more noise than certainty. [Read more 🡒]
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Billy Cook Had A Bigger Reason To Shine For Pirates
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Cooks work in the field stood out just as much as his bat, and manager Don Kelly took notice afterward. Kelly praised Cooks defense and singled out the strength of his arm in the outfield, the sort of trait that can change innings and give a club an edge. For a Pirates team always looking for reliable all-around contributions, Cook gave them a reminder that his value is not limited to one side of the game. [Read more 🡒]