Hope springs eternal on Opening Weekend: every record reset to 0-0, every player in the best shape of his life. But while we certainly don't want to rain on anyone's parade this time of year ... we're all adults here; we understand where certain teams fall in the MLB pecking order. All due respect to the Angels, White Sox and Nationals, but this season will probably not involve a trip to the playoffs.
Fans of those teams still have plenty to look forward to, of course, from breakout players on the rise to improbable walk-off wins. But it's tough starting the season knowing that you won't have access to a whole chunk of baseball's emotional spectrum. Which is why we're here to help you get it back, with an in-depth guide to choosing your second team for the 2026 campaign.
We're not suggesting you forget all about your primary team. The goal is here is simply to help you find a bandwagon to ride along in for a few months, the contending team that will allow you to experience the vicarious thrill of high-leverage baseball without compromising any of your values.
If you want to pull for the little guy
Milwaukee Brewers
If you're in the market for a second team this season, chances are you're not a fan of a big-market club — your Yankees and Mets and Dodgers and Cubs. And if you aren't, chances are you'd really like to see them eat it in spectacular fashion in 2026, for David to finally get one over on Goliath.
With that said, allow me to introduce you to the Milwaukee Brewers. They're not the only small-market team that could make some serious noise this year, but they're the best bet: It was Milwaukee, not the Dodgers, who posted baseball's best record last season, and at this point they've earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fielding a competitive team no matter their roster attrition and no matter their budget.
Of course, it also helps that they play an extremely watchable brand of ball, with high-octane arms and chaos in the field and on the bases. Young outfielder Jackson Chourio is an MVP candidate waiting to be unleashed, while Jacob Misiorowski's triple-digits fastball is matched only by his inability to ever really be sure where it's going. The Brewers aren't just trying to dethrone L.A.; they're trying to prove to the baseball world that this game isn't totally rigged.
If you want to avoid a lockout
Baltimore Orioles
Speaking of which! At the heart of MLB's current labor strife is payroll disparity: Owners look at the Dodgers and Mets spending a cool half a billion on their rosters and wonder how they're supposed to compete, while skeptics wonder whether those owners are really just looking for an excuse to stay cheap.
If you want a full season of baseball in 2027, you want proof of the latter, something that will show the rest of the league that contention is possible if you're just willing to open up the checkbook a bit. Which brings us to the Baltimore Orioles: After years of running criminally low payrolls despite a loaded core of homegrown talent, Mike Elias finally went big this offseason, throwing $150 million at Pete Alonso while also acquiring Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt to overhaul the starting rotation.
Now for the million-dollar question: Will it work? If the O's can hang with, or even best, a loaded division full of World Series contenders with deep pockets in New York, Boston and Toronto, it would be proof positive that other smaller markets like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati don't have a good excuse not to try. If Baltimore falls flat, though ... well, hope you have other plans next summer.
If you want to make sure that Yankees fans are miserable
Toronto Blue Jays
Look, as a Yankees fan myself: I get it. We are, objectively speaking, the worst, from our unrealistic expectations of yearly domination to our steadfast commitment to being as rude as possible to every opposing fan base. If you weren't born into this, I don't blame you in the slightest for wanting nothing but bad things for us.
And if that is in fact the case, the Toronto Blue Jays are your second team for 2026. It's not just that they're both New York and Boston's primary competition for the AL pennant, having boosted their pitching staff in a big way this offseason. It's that they seem to hate the Yankees as much as any fan ever could; just look at the way. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. relishes breaking hearts in the Bronx. How could you not hop on that bandwagon?
If you want to watch greatness on a nightly basis
Kansas City Royals
There's a fundamental tension in this exercise. As a fan, you want to watch the very best players the sport has to offer, the ones you'll want to tell your kids you were there for decades from now. But the two biggest stars in baseball right now, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, play for the Dodgers and Yankees — easily the two least likable MLB teams, from a neutral perspective.
Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals are here to help. It's been buried a bit beneath the comical feats of Ohtani and Judge but he's been worth nearly 20 fWAR combined over the last two seasons, and he's still just 25 years old. He's a wizard defensively at shortstop while also being one of the best hitters in the sport; we're watching a generational career unfold right in front of our eyes. And hey, Kansas City also happens to have a pretty fun team around him this year, with Team Italy stars Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone plus a legit Rookie of the Year candidate in Carter Jensen and an All-Star third baseman in Maikel Garcia.
If you don't want to know the terrifying truth, you just want to see a team sock a few dingers
Chicago Cubs
I appreciate a good pitcher's duel as much as the next guy, but let's be honest: Chicks (and fans of all genders) still dig the long ball. The Cubs swapped out Kyle Tucker for Alex Bregman, but this is still a phenomenally deep lineup, with potent bats pretty much from one through 8: Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki could all go for 30 homers, and Bregman, Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson ain't too shabby either. Add in top prospect Moises Ballesteros at DH, plus a pitching staff that comes with some question marks, and Chicago could be trying to slug its way to an NL Central title this year.
Of course, we also realize that, for many fans out there, the prospect of rooting for the Cubs is tantamount to psychological torture. So if you're looking for another way to watch 10-8 barnburners on a nightly basis, we have a plan B.
Athletics
I have no idea how the Athletics are going to field a functional pitching staff this year, but my goodness, is this team going to put up some runs. They finished seventh in baseball in dingers last season, and that was without a full year from Nick Kurtz and with a slumping Lawrence Butler. From Kurtz to Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom to Brent Rooker, there are sluggers all over this lineup, and they picked up where they left off by leading the Majors in homers this spring. Oh, and did we mention they play in a Minor League park with comical dimensions? The Athletics might not be good enough to make a playoff spot in 2026, but they'll be appointment viewing.
If you're mostly just here for the drama
New York Mets
Secondhand mess is the best kind of mess: You get the vicarious thrill of watching a slow-motion train crash, but without the emotional trauma of watching it happen to your team. If you're not necessarily looking for a great team but a great time, the New York Mets are sure to deliver.
There's a chance that everything goes gangbusters; Freddy Peralta and Nolan McLean lead the rotation, Luis Robert Jr. finally puts it all together, Francisco Alvarez stays healthy and hits 30 homers. There's also a chance that Robert Jr. and Alvarez are injured and/or inconsistent, that the pitching staff falls apart again and that New York misses the playoffs for a second straight season.
Either way, you come out a winner. Because after collapsing down the stretch in 2025, president David Stearns was already under fire from certain segments of the fan base, and that's only truer now after he let favorites like Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo walk out the door. If things go south here, it's going to be some A-plus rubbernecking from a franchise that can implode with the best of them.
Detroit Tigers
Tarik Skubal's looming free agency was already set to be one of the defining storylines of this MLB season, and the controversy around his (lack of) participation in the World Baseball Classic just cranked up the volume another notch or two. Every time Skubal takes the ball this year, it's going to be a referendum on both his future and the Tigers': Is he worth $400 million on the open market? Is Detroit really going to let one of the best players in franchise history walk? Can they come together for one Last Dance-esque run to the World Series?
The Tigers have everything they need to win the AL Central and once again put themselves in position to make noise in October. The thought of Skubal putting the team on his back one more time, weeks before potentially leaving them for good, is the sort of script you can't dream up.
Philadelphia Phillies
If I were to recommend one division to follow as a neutral fan in 2026, it would be the NL East. Not because it'll be the best (the AL East probably takes that crown), but because it will definitely be the messiest. We've already been over the Mets above, and the Braves too are a talented team for whom the vibes are already trending downwards. And yet, the most fragile foundation might be in Philadelphia, where the Phillies could be a few months away a championship — or from blowing the whole thing up.
That's what happens when you assemble a starry roster, make a stirring World Series run and then flame out of the postseason for three consecutive years afterwards. It's now make-or-break time, both for Philly's aging roster and for president Dave Dombrowski. The fact that Dombrowski is already alienating Bryce Harper, who is himself trying to prove the haters wrong, just makes things even juicier.
If you're sick and tired of East Coast bias (and also the Dodgers)
Seattle Mariners
If you're sick and tired of ESPN forcing us to sit through four hours of Red Sox-Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball 18 times a year, this one's for you. Maybe you're on Pacific time, or maybe you're just looking for something to get attached to in the later hours of the night when only the true sickos are still awake. Whatever the case, the Mariners are here to help: This pitching staff is once again dynamite, and Brendan Donovan (and top infield prospect Colt Emerson) are here to supplement a lineup that came within an eyelash of a World Series berth last season.
Julio Rodriguez might be the single most magnetic star in the sport right now, and their catcher just hit 60 homers and goes by the name Big Dumper. What more could you want?