The 2025 MLB regular season is about to reach its climax, with pretty much everything up for grabs as the calendar gets set to flip to September. But it's never too early to start thinking about next year — at least not according to Rob Manfred, who picked Tuesday afternoon to drop the 2026 schedule for all 30 teams. (Why, was there some bigger piece of news going on?)
While a lot could change between now and next year's Opening Day, with stars swapping teams and fortunes rising and falling, that doesn't mean we can't try to read the tea leaves and determine which series will be the most important when deciding who reaches October and who falls short. Here are five we have our eye on already.
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Red Sox at Blue Jays (Apr. 27-29)
Really, you could slot in any series in the month of April here for Boston. Here's how the Red Sox will begin the 2026 season: a road trip at Cincinnati and Houston, back home for six against the Padres and Brewers, a relative break with the Twins and Cardinals, then back home for series with the Tigers and Yankees before heading out to face the Orioles and Blue Jays. (Oh, and May begins with the Astros and Tigers again).
That's a gauntlet, to say the least, especially if Baltimore bounces back next season like it looks like they might. We'll know a lot about these Red Sox based on how their record looks at the end of April; if they manage to keep their heads above water, they could take advantage of a second half that looks pretty light right now. Of course, there's also a chance that things are off the rails after just a few weeks, with three in Toronto at the end of the month providing one final test.
Dodgers at Phillies (July 20-22)
Dodgers-Phillies doesn't need much of a hard sell to begin with; these have been two of the NL's best over the last few years, and they should be strong once again in 2026. Philly will get 10 games against the Braves and Mets in September that could well determine whether they're on top of the NL East when all is said and done. To get there, though, they'll first have to survive a heck of a homestand coming out of the All-Star break, one that features series against the Mets, Dodgers and Yankees one after another.
How Philly comes out of that gauntlet will likely go a long way toward deciding how the NL playoff picture shakes out at the end of the year — both because the Phillies' schedule lightens up considerably in August and because it could determine the season series with both New York and L.A.
Mariners at Astros (Aug. 14-16)
Balanced scheduling means that, while they'll see each other eight times across the first two months, these two rivals only have five head-to-head matchups in the second half of the season. And the series in September is just a two-game set, meaning that these three games in mid-August will be all the more critical in deciding the pecking order in the AL West.
The Texas Rangers figure to be in the mix once again, and maybe the A's batch of young hitters will be ready to take the leap. Most likely, though, this division is going to come down to Houston and Seattle, and whichever team comes out on top in this three-game series will most likely have the inside track on a playoff spot.
Brewers at Cubs (Aug. 31-Sept. 3)
Buckle your seatbelts. After not meeting since late May, the Cubs and Brewers will square off for seven huge games across two series over the first two weeks of September. We're focusing on the first one here, four games at Wrigley Field that will almost certainly have NL Central supremacy hanging in the balance.
With the Cardinals retooling and the Pirates being, well, the Pirates, there isn't much that would seem to stand in the way of Milwaukee and Chicago doing battle atop this division yet again. The head-to-head matchups are going to be crucial, and none will be bigger than these four.
Mets at Yankees (Sept. 11-13)
After squaring off at Citi Field in mid-May, round two of the Subway Series comes to Yankee Stadium with far more than baseball on everyone's minds, as New York will be acknowledging the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. It's guaranteed to be an emotionally charged scene, and that's before we even get to Juan Soto making another return to the Bronx or two teams that should be in the thick of playoff pushes. This is a rivalry that's been given new life over the last few months, and it's about to be given a whole new meaning.