Pittsburgh right-hander Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year award winner, will be the youngest pitcher in 11 years to start a season opener when he takes the mound for the Pirates next week.

Skenes will be 22 years and 302 days old on March 27 when Pittsburgh plays at Miami. José Fernández of the Marlins was 21 years and 243 days old when he opened the 2014 season. In its annual announcement of the opening day starters, most of which had been already informally confirmed by their clubs during spring training, Major League Baseball also revealed Tuesday that Skenes will be the fastest first overall draft pick to make an opening day start.

Skenes was drafted by the Pirates in 2023. Mike Moore was the first selection by Seattle in 1981 and started opening day for the Mariners in 1984, and Stephen Strasburg was the top pick by Washington in 2009 and made his first opening day start for the Nationals in 2012.

Three natives of Japan got the nods for their openers, the most in MLB history. Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers were the starters for the grand opener in Tokyo earlier Tuesday, a 4-1 win for Yamamoto and the Dodgers. Yusei Kikuchi will also start for the Los Angeles Angels on March 27 against the Chicago White Sox. Seven other Japanese-born players have previously started season openers: Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideo Nomo.

Two teams have yet to declare their opening day starter: Arizona and Cleveland. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he’s deciding between newcomer Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen for the road game against the Cubs. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has yet to commit, but all signs point to Tanner Bibee, who pitched in a Cactus League exhibition game on Monday that lines up his rest schedule to be ready for the March 27 game against Kansas City.

With the Cubs and Dodgers getting a head start, the 28 other teams will open on March 27. Four of the opening day starters will make their debuts with a new team: Garrett Crochet with Boston, Clay Holmes with the New York Mets, Luis Severino with the Athletics and Kikuchi with the Angels.

The others are Carlos Rodón (New York Yankees), Freddy Peralta (Milwaukee), José Berríos (Toronto), Zach Elfin (Baltimore), Nathan Eovaldi (Texas), MacKenzie Gore (Washington), Zach Wheeler (Philadelphia), Cole Ragans (Kansas City), Framber Valdez (Houston), Hunter Greene (Cincinnati), Logan Webb (San Francisco), Michael King (San Diego), Chris Sale (Atlanta), Sean Burke (Chicago White Sox), Sandy Alcantara (Miami), Sonny Gray (St. Louis), Pablo López (Minnesota), Tarik Skubal (Detroit), Logan Gilbert (Seattle), Shane McClanahan (Tampa Bay) and Kyle Freeland (Colorado).

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Florida’s cross-country trip hit a snag Monday.

Coach Todd Golden called his favorite restaurant in San Francisco, Original Joe’s, and got rejected. It didn’t help that he was trying to find space for 17 players, six coaches and at least a dozen more managers and staff.

“They’re too busy. I tried,” Golden said. “They don’t have enough room for the team.”

Golden and the top-seeded Gators (32-4) might have to settle for takeout from the popular Italian-American eatery.

“We’ll figure something out,” he said.

The 39-year-old Golden is counting on the rest of his return trip to Northern California going much smoother — and ending with Florida celebrating the program’s first Final Four in more than a decade.

The Gators play fourth-seeded Maryland (27-8) on Thursday in the Sweet 16 at the Chase Center. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Golden, who played at Saint Mary’s College (2004-08) in nearby Moraga and returned to the Bay Area to coach at San Francisco (2016-22), first as an assistant and then as the head coach for three seasons.

“It’s a handful. It’s a lot,” he said.

His phone has barely stopped buzzing since the Gators rallied past two-time defending national champion UConn, with calls and texts from friends and family members — some looking for tickets and others hoping to line up some time with Golden before his most important game of the season.

“I got a million friends who are like, ‘Hey, do you have 10 minutes for coffee?’ Well, I have 10. But I don’t six different 10s,” Golden said. “Big picture, it sounds great to be able to try to do all these things. But you get there and you’re not going to be able to do that much (stuff).”

Golden has a plan, though. He is inviting those closest to him to Florida’s practice Tuesday and/or walkthrough Wednesday at War Memorial Gym on San Francisco’s campus. The Gators are leaving Gainesville early Tuesday and trying to take advantage of the time difference to practice on the West Coast for a couple days.

“It’s going to be awesome being able to go back,” Golden said. “I’m trying to do everything I can to enjoy it, too.”

Playing better would help.

Florida dominated the first 15 minutes of its NCAA Tournament opener against Norfolk State, leading 51-19 before the Spartans rallied and outscored the Gators the rest of the way. And Golden’s team trailed UConn by six midway through the second half Sunday before wearing the Huskies down and escaping with a 77-75 victory in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I do feel like it was a little bit of a weight off of our team’s shoulders,” Golden said. “We got the 1 seed, and we played great the first 15 minutes against Norfolk and then we just kind of coasted. And there was pressure going into (UConn). We’ve had an incredible year. But if we’re somehow not able to win this game, I certainly mentally was like, ‘It’s going to be a letdown.’ Like the season’s going to feel like a letdown if we can’t get through this UConn game, which is crazy considering we won 31 games up until that point.

“But that’s the pressure of a 1 seed. That’s the pressure of trying to get a program back to its glory days. And I felt it, and our guys felt that way, especially for the first 30 or so minutes of the game.”

Golden believes his guys played tight early, started pressing after falling behind and made uncharacteristic mistakes along the way. All-American guard Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Thomas Haugh bailed the Gators out with several huge plays down the stretch.

“After winning, I do feel like the pin popped the balloon,” Golden said. “We can kind of play loose this week.”

Even if they don’t get to go to Joe’s.

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