By: Manuel Polanco
As the fervor of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) ended, the start of the 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) season began to clean off their bats and get to first base. March 25 was the day every baseball fan rejoiced as they got to see their favorite team begin the long 162-game haul.
Coming into this season, talk was circulating that the Pittsburgh Pirates would have their star prospect, Konnor Griffin, on their opening-day squad. Griffin was eventually called up and made his big league debut on April 3 at his home stadium in Pittsburgh, making him one of the few teenagers to make the big leagues.
“It’s been unbelievable. You know, the drive from Columbus to here, just two hours of just kind of reflecting on the whole journey so far. I was sitting here about a year and a half ago, two years after I got drafted, and was talking about how cool it would be to play on this field and how now I get to do it, so I’m super excited,” Griffin said to reporters before his debut.
Griffin notched a double and a run batted in (RBI) in his debut, tying him with Texas Rangers Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre as the only teenagers to double in their major league debut.
The good times kept rolling for Griffin and the Pirates as both parties agreed to a nine-year extension worth $140 million. This will lock up the young player for his first six years of arbitration and three years of potential free agency, a good move by the front office, and showcases that they believe in their young star.
New faces on teams and luxury contracts being handed out like hot cakes, the start to this MLB season has been entertaining.
This season, the league introduced the game-changing Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system. This system will allow pitchers, batters, and catchers to challenge any call the umpire makes; the ABS will analyze if the call was either a ball or a strike. To use the ABS, players must tap their head as soon as a call is declared if they want to challenge it; each team is allowed two challenges a game. If a team incorrectly assumes a ball or strike, they lose that challenge. This system holds umpires accountable if they make a bad call and can help flip the switch on an at-bat, as a 3-2 count can turn to either a walk or strikeout if correctly challenged.
The reigning World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, also got in on the mass spending in free agency. In the 2025 offseason, the Dodgers got richer with their signings of outfielder Kyle Tucker and veteran closer Edwin Diaz, two players who will bolster an already lethal and imposing lineup.
Tucker is coming off an up-and-down season where his first-half numbers greatly exceeded his second-half production, but that didn’t stop the Dodgers from inking him to a four-year deal worth $240 million, which has an annual average value of $57 million per year.
Diaz was a former New York Mets pitcher who opted out of his contract with the Mets, since he’d been traded there from the Seattle Mariners in 2019.
A lights-out closer for the Mets, Diaz had his best season in 2022, where he saved 32 games and had a strikeout percentage (K%) of 50%. He signed with the Dodgers on a three-year deal worth $69 million. The annual average value of this contract is $21.1 million.
The reigning champs enhanced their already ferocious lineup by adding all-star players, but on the East Coast, a New York team underwent a complete makeover.
After their disastrous and forgettable 2025 season, the New York Mets looked to retool their lineup and shake things up. After losing their closer and first baseman, Pete Alonso, the Mets signed veteran player Jorge Polanco on a two-year deal worth $40 million to somewhat replace the offensive production of Alonso.
They proceeded to trade longtime Mets players Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil to shed a bit of payroll. The Mets now build a new lineup, consisting of Luis Robert, whom they traded for, Bo Bichette, in the offseason, and veteran player Marcus Semien, who they got in the Nimmo trade.
This new look, along with the debut of their rookie outfielder Carson Benge, is poised to make the Mets a bit more interesting this year.
13 games into the season, and the Dodgers have proved why they’re the best team in the league, and the Mets continue to flounder. But the season has 162 games; rough patches are to be expected. As more players shed the offseason slog, their offensive production will get better as well.