David Schoenfield
Multiple Authors
We’re off and working with the primary weekend of 2026 Major League Baseball video games within the books.
The first few days of the season had a lot: what appears to be like like a star-studded rookie class exhibiting off its expertise, alternatives to see how the automated ball-strike system will affect the sport, Tony Vitello’s MLB managerial debut, a sweep by the reigning back-to-back World Series champions, thrilling debuts from Japanese gamers and more.
What have we realized to this point? Here are 10 preliminary takeaways from the opening weekend.
This rookie class goes to be particular
We’ll have all season to dig into what could be a historic group of rookies given the quick returns we have seen from Chase DeLauter, Kevin McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt, Sal Stewart and Carson Benge. Remember as properly that others who debuted final season, together with Nolan McLean, Bubba Chandler, Connelly Early, Samuel Basallo, Trey Yesavage, Carter Jensen, Dylan Beavers and Moises Ballesteros, stay rookies. This class appears to be like as if it has star expertise and plenty of depth.
One of the perfect highlights from this group was McGonigle’s 10-pitch at-bat towards the San Diego Padres on Friday. Facing powerful southpaw Wandy Peralta in a left-on-left battle with two outs within the eighth and the bases loaded in a tie recreation, McGonigle fouled off six pitches earlier than lastly lining a two-run single into right-center area. After the eighth or ninth pitch, the digital camera flashed to Detroit Tigers starter Justin Verlander leaning on the dugout railing, a bit of smile on his face as he watched the younger participant.
The final nice rookie class we had was in 2022, when Julio Rodriguez, Steven Kwan, Adley Rutschman, Michael Harris II and Jeremy Pena every cracked 5.0 WAR, essentially the most rookie place gamers ever with 5 WAR in a single season (in actual fact, solely two different seasons even had three). That rookie class additionally included Bobby Witt Jr., Geraldo Perdomo, Riley Greene, CJ Abrams, Vinnie Pasquantino, Seiya Suzuki, Gabriel Moreno and Brendan Donovan, plus pitchers Spencer Strider, George Kirby, Hunter Greene, Joe Ryan, Nick Lodolo, MacKenzie Gore and Jhoan Duran.
That’s a formidable group, though gamers akin to Rutschman and Harris have regressed.
Let’s give the 2026 class a bit of more time to marinate earlier than making these all-time comparisons. But what an ideal begin to the season for this yr’s rookies.
The ABS system is right here
While it is simple to make early assumptions concerning the new automated ball-strike system, I believe it should take time to research the outcomes of it. One factor I heard from native announcers more than as soon as as I watched video games this previous weekend was, “Save your challenges for when you need them late in games.”
My idea: We do not know if that would be the proper strategy. You would possibly save them and the sport turns right into a blowout. If a hitter saves his challenges for an in depth recreation late, it may not matter if a name will get overturned towards an elite nearer akin to Aroldis Chapman or Mason Miller — as a result of they will most likely get the hitter out anyway. Most video games are more prone to be gained or misplaced within the early or center innings than within the eighth or ninth, so it’d make more sense to make use of challenges earlier in a high-leverage state of affairs, even when there is a danger of utilizing up each of them.
We’ve additionally already realized that gamers are guessing at shut pitches simply as a lot as umpires. The overturn fee has been 53.8%, which mirrors the 53% fee from spring coaching. The lack of challenges has been the shocking side. The Colorado Rockies made simply two challenges in three video games. Four different groups made simply three challenges throughout three video games. It actually would not make sense to go away challenges on the desk; higher to make use of them than depart them for a state of affairs that by no means arises.
Those are just a few early ideas. It’s going to be enjoyable to interrupt this down more because the season progresses and groups adapt their problem strategy. For more on ABS, take a look at Jeff Passan’s deeper look at the first few days of the challenge system.
Players from Japan’s NPB come out swinging
Kazuma Okamoto and Munetaka Murakami are technically rookies, as properly, though they arrive from Nippon Professional Baseball as established stars.
Okamoto appears to be like as if he is going to slot in properly in the midst of the Toronto Blue Jays‘ lineup, going 4-for-12 with a house run and two walks in a three-game sweep of the Athletics. He has proven the power to shorten his swing with two strikes and hit to the alternative area — akin to his single to proper on Friday that began the game-winning rally — and to exhibit plus energy, together with his 420-foot, 110 mph residence run on Sunday. Bo Bichette hit .311/.357/.483 for Toronto final season, and Okamoto ought to come near changing that offense, perhaps with a decrease common however more walks and energy to make up the distinction.
Murakami, in the meantime, homered in his first three video games for the Chicago White Sox — becoming a member of the Cleveland Guardians‘ DeLauter as solely the third and fourth rookies in historical past to hit home runs in each of their first three major league games.
Concerns that Murakami’s contact charges in Japan would possibly make him a Joey Gallo-type slugger in MLB dropped his last signing value to 2 years and $34 million, which may flip right into a cut price for the White Sox. All three of his residence runs got here towards fastballs — one four-seamer and two cutters — though, notably, none of these pitches had high-end velocity readings, coming in at speeds of 90.5, 91.8 and 93.2 mph. The perception he would wrestle towards velocity additionally cooled the curiosity in him. He has seen 26 pitches of 95-plus mph and swung at eight of them, hitting three foul balls, grounding out as soon as and lacking 4 occasions.
Teams will most likely proceed to go after Murakami with arduous stuff till he disproves the scouting studies. Like Gallo, Murakami has a superb eye and can take his walks; Murakami has additionally proven that if it is not premium velocity, he’ll activate it. He has instantly become one of the vital attention-grabbing gamers to look at.
Cam Schlittler makes the Yankees the group to beat within the AL East
Heading into the season, it felt like an essential key for the New York Yankees in a dominant-looking American League East was to remain shut in April till they obtained Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole again within the rotation. But the rotation could be simply superb within the meantime, thanks very a lot. The Yankees swept the San Francisco Giants, permitting only one run in three video games, with Schlittler delivering a dominant outing, giving up only one hit in 5⅓ innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Schlittler threw 68 pitches — and 60 of them had been fastball variants (22 four-seamers, 22 cutters, 16 two-seamers). He combined in seven curveballs and one slider. It’s uncommon to throw a fastball 88% of the time in 2026, however Schlittler makes it work as a result of he tunnels all three pitches so properly that the batter’s mind cannot differentiate them, which ends up in quite a lot of foul balls (19 in Friday’s recreation) because of the late motion. Of course, it helps when the fastball averages 98 mph and the cutter averages 95 (notably up 3 mph from 2025).
As lengthy as he throws sufficient strikes, he’ll be a powerhouse, even with minimal utilization of his off-speed pitches. Schlittler had a 2.96 ERA in 14 begins final season, so it is not like that is popping out of nowhere. Schlittler got here up with Toronto’s Yesavage final season, with each gamers in the identical division and making huge begins within the postseason. Yesavage entered 2026 with more hype based mostly off the Blue Jays’ World Series run and his personal postseason efficiency, however I had Schlittler ranked a bit of larger on my hypothetical checklist of starters. Yesavage started the season on injured checklist with a shoulder impingement, so the early nod goes to Schlittler — and the Yankees.
Welcome to the Show, skip
New Giants supervisor Vitello, making the leap from teaching the University of Tennessee’s baseball group, had a forgettable first three video games. His group went 13-for-91 (.143), getting shut out within the first two video games of a season for the primary time within the 144-season historical past of the franchise. While that is clearly on the offense reasonably than Vitello, his remark after the second outing raised some eyebrows.
He mentioned he might need gone a bit of too “fire and brimstone” in a speech to the group earlier within the week, including, “I think some good words were shared, but I also think, as of right now, it’s a little emotional in there, and there’s definitely a lot of try-hards.”
This is not faculty soccer — or faculty baseball. In the majors, rah-rah speeches are not often deployed and barely efficient. The Giants did not lose due to a fire-and-brimstone speech — they usually weren’t going to win due to a fire-and-brimstone speech.
The gamers themselves grasp the state of affairs. As Robbie Ray mentioned, “We’re all major league players.” Heliot Ramos identified that it was two video games. The sooner Vitello learns that his affect and function within the majors will likely be totally different than it was in faculty, the higher for the Giants.
Is the cleanup hitter lifeless?
It appears as if more and more groups are merely top-loading their lineups, with their three greatest hitters batting 1-2-3 in some order. Certainly, the standard lineup — speedy man hitting leadoff, contact hitter batting second, your greatest hitter for common batting third then your prime slugging batting cleanup — is lengthy out of style. Last season, there wasn’t a lot distinction in productiveness from the highest 4 spots within the lineup:
No. 1: .257/.333/.420, .753 OPS, 688 HR
No. 2: .257.334/.432, .766 OPS, 775 HR
No. 3: .258/.335/.445, .780 OPS, 805 HR
No. 4: .250/.321/.432, .753 OPS, 792 HR
Cleanup hitters did hit more residence runs than leadoff hitters, however each produced the identical OPS. Check out a number of the gamers hitting leadoff to this point in 2026 although: Nick Kurtz, Michael Busch, Francisco Lindor, George Springer, Taylor Ward, Yandy Diaz, Ketel Marte, Roman Anthony, James Wood, Kerry Carpenter, Ronald Acuna Jr. — and, after all, Shohei Ohtani. These are all energy hitters, all gamers who would have hit third or fourth or fifth again when the “traditional” lineup was deployed more. Speed appears to be irrelevant; it is all about energy and getting on base. When the A’s moved Kurtz all the way down to second on Sunday with a lefty beginning, power-hitting catcher Shea Langeliers was bumped to the leadoff spot.
Meanwhile, we’re seeing cleanup hitters starting from Masyn Winn (9 residence runs final yr) to Pete Crow-Armstrong (31 residence runs however a .285 OBP) to Alec Bohm (11 residence runs) to Ryan Mountcastle (.653 OPS) and Rutschman (.673 OPS). Indeed, the Baltimore Orioles are a superb instance of the brand new trendy lineup: They’ve gone Ward, Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso as their 1-2-3 hitters, hoping to blast their option to an early lead. The Philadelphia Phillies have Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, earlier than an enormous drop-off to Bohm and Adolis Garcia.
The considering revolves round two concepts: Get your greatest hitters (1) essentially the most general at-bats, particularly that fifth plate look, and (2) to succeed in the third time by the order, when starters typically get hit tougher. The common starter confronted 21.9 hitters per recreation final yr. So, if in case you have a tiring starter on the market for his nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first hitters, you would possibly as properly make them your three greatest.
Mike Trout is … perhaps … hopefully … prepared for an enormous season
OK, it is 4 video games. Everyone ought to take a deep breath — together with us. But Trout is hitting .462/.650/.923, with two residence runs, seven walks and even a stolen base. He crushed a towering 403-foot go-ahead residence run on Opening Day then blasted one other 403-foot laser beam the following day, turning on an inside fastball. He additionally began in heart area the primary three video games earlier than DHing on Sunday.
The plan to play him usually in heart area has been extensively criticized, however perhaps it’s the greatest concept. I believe again to when Joe Maddon managed the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and he principally mentioned, “Let’s turn Shohei loose.” No sitting him the day earlier than he begins. When Ohtani pitched, he was within the lineup. He’s a baseball participant. Let him be a baseball participant. Maybe the identical logic will apply to Trout. Keeping him out of heart area and letting him DH hasn’t stored him within the lineup in latest seasons anyway. He nonetheless has wonderful bat velocity, elite plate self-discipline and loads of uncooked energy. Let him play and see what occurs. (And it is not just like the Angels have a greater possibility for heart area anyway.)
The NL Cy Young race is broad open after the Pirates collapse
Paul Skenes‘ Opening Day catastrophe was more on outfielder Oneil Cruz — he misplaced two routine fly balls within the solar — than on the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ pitcher. But after allowing five runs while recording just two outs, Skenes’ ERA sits at an unsightly 67.50. It will take 22 consecutive scoreless innings from him to get his ERA again within the acquainted sub-2.00 territory. Though, come to consider it, that does not appear all that unrealistic.
Meanwhile, fellow National League Cy Young contenders Cristopher Sanchez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto discovered higher success of their Opening Day begins. The Phillies’ ace stored the Texas Rangers hitless and racked up a whopping 10 strikeouts, whereas the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ World Series MVP obtained the win over the Arizona Diamondbacks with six innings of five-hit ball.
A few asides on the Pirates, although:
Why cannot these fly balls that Cruz dropped be dominated errors? Silly rulings on the official scoring, even when neither ball touched his glove in heart area. Skenes should not be punished for clear misplays.
What do the Pirates do with Cruz? Manager Don Kelly despatched a message by benching him within the second recreation of the season, however Cruz was again in heart area Sunday. So a lot of the Pirates’ hopes rely on Cruz rebounding from a tough 2025 season wherein he slashed .200/.298/.378, together with a .177 common within the second half. Does Cruz have it in him? He’s 27 now. The time for ready on his potential is over. He wants to provide.
Closer issues? Yes, particularly in Kansas City …
Blown saves and blown leads all the time really feel greater within the first days of the season than they do in the midst of June. There should not be an excessive amount of concern concerning the Phillies’ Duran or the Seattle Mariners‘ Andres Munoz dropping video games in additional innings with a number of runs allowed. Jeff Hoffman, coming off blowing Game 7 of the World Series, did serve up a tying residence run within the ninth on opening night time for the Blue Jays, though he rebounded to choose up a save Sunday. So, we’ll see about him. The Diamondbacks and the A’s? Definite bullpen points.
The largest nearer concern, nonetheless, is Carlos Estevez of the Kansas City Royals, who led the majors with 42 saves final season however had an all-time stinker Saturday. He got here in towards the Atlanta Braves with a 2-0 lead and that is what adopted: stroll, single, pop fly, single, stroll, single, walk-off grand slam to Dominic Smith.
Estevez’s velocity was down in spring coaching, and his fastball averaged simply 91.2 mph towards the Braves, down from 95.9 mph final yr. That’s a major velocity drop. Lucas Erceg is presumably the backup possibility, however the bullpen was constructed across the concept of Erceg, Matt Strahm and John Schreiber serving as the highest setup guys in entrance of Estevez. Now, that plan may get thrown into disarray early within the marketing campaign.
… however not in L.A.
In case you had been questioning: Yes, Edwin Diaz introduced “Narco” with him from New York — and this time with a reside trumpet participant in Tatiana Tate. Diaz’s entrance thrilled Dodgers followers simply because it did Mets followers. More thrilling, nonetheless, was Diaz recording two saves in his first two appearances because the Dodgers swept the D-backs.
After Los Angeles’ bullpen struggled final season, it began 2026 with 11⅔ scoreless innings. The secret weapon right here could be World Series star Will Klein. Despite his 72-pitch, four-inning outing to win Game 3, Klein was hardly a lock to make the roster this yr. But he had a powerful spring coaching and, mixed with a number of Dodgers pitchers nonetheless being on the IL, he cracked the Opening Day roster. Klein throws 98 mph, so the arm power has by no means been doubtful. If he can pitch strikes, he may emerge as a key man in a much-improved Dodgers pen.
And if that is the case, they may simply win 100 video games, which no group has performed the previous two seasons.
