PHOTO BY HARRISON BARDEN/PITTSBURGH PIRATES

The season starts Friday night.

Not that the Pirates can wipe the slate totally clean. The disappointing, 17-21 record they achieved through 38 mostly frustrating games remains a stain on the collective resume.

But all of a sudden that seems irrelevant as a projection as to where this team might be headed.

The landscape has changed, and so has the narrative.

Now that Paul Skenes has at long last been summoned from Class AAA Indianapolis, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Skenes arrives with that much potential and that much promise.

And now that he’s here, the Pirates can finally unleash the front end of a rotation anyone who has been paying attention has been envisioning all along.

It starts with Jared Jones on Friday night against the Cubs, followed by Skenes on Saturday and Mitch Keller on Sunday.

Repeat as necessary and there’s every reason to believe the next 38 games and the ones after that can and will be different, perhaps dramatically so.

Skenes is more than just last year’s first-overall draft pick.

He’s baseball’s most hyped pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg in 2010 and the Pirates’ most anticipated savior since Gerrit Cole in 2013.

He’s a 6-foot-6, 235-pound, flame-throwing prodigy with the character of a former cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

All of that has made Skenes a national story.

And one even the current Buccos have been eager to see unfold.

“I mean, yeah, absolutely,” Mitch Keller confirmed to the MLB Network.

Keller spoke on Monday night after authoring a five-hit, complete-game victory over the Angeles.

He did so as an established Major League pitcher, as a member of last season’s National League All-Star Team, as a pitcher who, by Pirates’ standards, at least, is highly compensated and well respected.

Keller has been there and done that.

And even he was admittedly looking forward to the day when Skenes would eventually get here and start doing it.

“I watch every one of his (minor-league) starts,” Keller continued. “He’s just impressive, impressive what he can do, impressive arsenal. The guy’s a beast out there, so, yeah, I can’t wait for him to get up here.

“I obviously don’t know when that’s gonna be but hopefully it’s soon and yeah, I’m excited for it.”

Can there be a better endorsement?

Jones shared Keller’s enthusiasm when Jones spoke with the MLB Network prior to Wednesday afternoon’s 5-4, come-from-ahead loss to the Angels, specifically as it related to the Jones-Skenes-Keller triumvirate on the bump.

“It’s a pretty scary sight,” Jones suggested. “Skenes is obviously a different guy when he’s up on the mound and throws 102 (mph) right past everyone. He’s really fun to watch, I watch a lot of his games down there in Triple-A. I’m excited for him wherever he does come up.

“It could be a really, really fun rotation to be a part of.”

And a really, really fun summer after all.

Not that three dominant starters can solve all of the Pirates’ problems, even if all three dominate to the best of the Pirates’ expectations.

Jones, who has been brilliant as a rookie, and Keller, who finally looked like the guy the Pirates had been expecting all along on Monday night, can’t do much about the Bucs’ profound lack of offense.

But they can make offense a little less critical to the equation.

And they might have an intangible effect along the way (some confidence inspired in their teammates and some pressure, perhaps, applied to the opposition).

If nothing else a Jones-Skenes-Keller threesome at least provides for the Pirates a much-needed identity.

And for a team that lacks a great deal, including an understanding of who they are and how they intend to win games, that’s a start.

A new start? That’s a new beginning.

Thanks to one guy, thanks to this guy, the Pirates just got a whole lot more interesting and potentially a whole lot better.

That’s game-changing.

Even if they find a way to go 17-21 again in their next 38.