In less than a week, baseball’s best will arrive in Philadelphia for the 2026 MLB All Star Game.

Originally named as the representative of the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting pitcher Paul Skenes earned his third straight All Star nod.

Though, in the first year of his MLB career where he is not starting for the National League in the midsummer classic, Skenes will not appear in the game at all. His pitching schedule lines him up to start the final game before the All Star break, not leaving enough rest time between appearances.

In his place in Braxton Ashcraft, who was named as a replacement on Tuesday and plans to pitch in the All Star Game. And while both Skenes and Ashcraft are names we expected to contend for All Star bids, the Game can also roster some names we might have forgotten suited up with the best of the best.

So with just days before the event, I decided to look back on some Pirates you might have forgot were All Stars.

Derek Shelton, 2023

Why not start with probably the wackiest name on this list?

Early in his fourth year as manager in Pittsburgh, Shelton’s Pirates had their first true taste of success under his reign. That 20-8 start to open the 2023 season is still fondly remembered in the tortured minds of Pirates fans, and it briefly put both Shelton and the club on the big-league map.

Though those good graces probably lasted a little longer through the rest of the sport longer than they did in Pittsburgh, the competitive nature of the Pirates in 2023, after three years of abysmal, depressing baseball, earned Shelton the honor of an All Star selection as a coach underneath Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thompson.

The Pirates were four games under .500 at 38-42 on the day he was selected to the managerial staff, and eight games under at 41-49 heading into the All Star break.

Three years later, Shelton is back at the All Star Game again in his new post as manager of the Minnesota Twins.

Mitch Keller, 2023

Given the struggles of the right-hander this year, it’s a little hard to believe that Keller once joined his manager at the All Star festivities. But that same year, Keller (along with closer David Bednar) was also at the game in Seattle.

Keller was the ace of the 2023 rotation that included the oldest player in baseball in Rich Hill and a host of young, somewhat unproven talent. That season, Keller was mostly up to the job. At the time of the All Star break, Keller had thrown 117 innings to the tune of a 3.31 ERA, 1.119 WHIP, and 3.79 strikeout-to-walk-ratio.

That season was arguably his best with the Pirates. Though his ERA ticked up to 4.21, he threw a career-high 194.1 innings and pitched the only complete game shutout of his career.

Adam Frazier, 2021

Back during his first stint with the Pirates, Frazier was one of the few bright spots during the first of back-to-back 100+ loss seasons.

In the midst of a career year offensively, Frazier led the Pirates into the All Star break, shining with a .330/.397/.463 (.860 OPS) slash line and four home runs, 29 RBI, and a very low 10.8% strikeout rate through 89 games.

Despite the Pirates in an abysmal state in 2021, the utility man was one of two Pittsburgh representatives in Colorado that year, along with a younger Bryan Reynolds.

Frazier played just nine games for the Pirates after the All Star Game, with the team trying to take advantage of his trade value and dealing him to San Diego for a package of Michell Miliano, Tucupita Marcano, and Jack Suwinski.

Miliano played in the organization for three years, but never made it past Double-A. Marcano played 124 games for the Pirates before he was banished from the sport for betting on games. And Suwinski’s trials and tribulations in Pittsburgh are well documented; he is now playing Triple-A ball.

Josh Harrison, 2017

Much of Harrison’s best ball came during the height of Pittsburgh’s three year playoff run from 2013 to 2015. Harrison was an All-Star in 2014 and slashed .298/.334/.442 (.776 OPS) during his first three years in the league.

After a less powerful 2016 campaign, Harrison was back on the All Star map for the 2017 season. Following a .280/.361/.436 (.797 OPS) slash line with ten home runs and 29 RBI heading into the break, Harrison was the lone Pirate on the field in Miami.

The 2017 run was Harrison’s second to last season as a Pirate, and although he played nearly 500 more games as a major leaguer, he didn’t make it back to the All Star Game.

Evan Meek, 2010

A reliever with a career 3.63 ERA, 1.357 WHIP, and 1.60 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 196 innings of work in the major leagues, Meek ironically saved his best year for the worst team he ever pitched for.

A member of 57-105 Pirates, one of the worst performances in the near 150-year history of the franchise, Meek actually pitched exceptionally well out of the bullpen. Heading into the break, Meek threw up a 1.11 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 48.2 innings. The Pirates were 16-24 in games the righty had pitched in, but considering just how awful that team was, that’s honestly a miracle for Meek.

He was the only Pirate in Anaheim for the All Star festivities, but unfortunately his work started to fall apart after the break. In the last two and a half months of the season, Meek’s ERA shot up to 3.73, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio plummeted as well.

However, Meek still finished with a 2.14 ERA through 70 games and 80 innings, with a 1.050 WHIP and 2.26 strikeout-to-walk ratio.