Major League Baseball announced Tuesday its regular season schedule for 2026 with the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants opening the campaign on March 25.
Traditional Opening Day will be held Thursday March 26, 2026, according to MLB, marking the earliest for the league topping 2025 which began on March 27.
The Cincinnati Reds will begin their 2026 season on Traditional Opening Day against the Boston Red Sox. The two interleague rivals who faced one another in the 1975 World Series will play for the first time on Opening Day.
Among other highlights in the Reds’ 2026 schedule include: a six-game homestand to start the season; a Mother’s Day matchup with Houston and Father’s Day game against Arizona; a Fourth of July home contest against Baltimore during a nine-game homestand to close the first half; nine divisional games in September against Milwaukee and the Chicago Cubs; and a close to the regular season with a six-game road trip to Atlanta and Toronto concluding league-wide on September 27.
2026 will mark the 50-year anniversary of Cincinnati’s 1976 World Series sweep of the Yankees. The Reds honored the Big Red Machine during a 50th Anniversary Reunion Celebration in June.
Cincinnati’s Ohio Cup rival Cleveland Guardians will play Traditional Opening Day on the road against the Seattle Mariners.
The Guardians will remain on the road to start 2026 and travel from Seattle to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers in a three-game set. Cleveland’s home opener next year will be April 3 against the Cubs, a meeting of the two teams 10 years after the 2016 World Series.
The first full slate of 15 games will be Saturday March 28, 2026, and will be followed by the conclusion of Opening Weekend on March 29. MLB will see divisional rivals Los Angeles and the Astros as well as the Diamondbacks and Dodgers play one another during the first weekend of next season.
The Athletics, who are playing their home games in Sacramento this season, will get a preview at life in Las Vegas in 2026. The A’s will host Milwaukee and Colorado next June in back-to-back series at Las Vegas Ballpark.
According to MLB, “Rivalry Weekend” will return and take place May 15-17. The Reds will travel to Cleveland and play at the Guardians.
The Dodgers will host the New York Mets for Jackie Robinson Day on Wednesday April 15.
MLB also built in scheduling accomodations for the FIFA World Cup, which will take place across North America next year between June and July. Seattle will host Boston and they’ll play a doublehader June 20 “due to a scheduled FIFA World Cup match at Lumen Field on Friday, June 19th,” per an MLB release.
“Additional scheduling accommodations related to the FIFA World Cup include built-in off days in Arlington (Wednesday, June 17th and Friday, July 3rd); Philadelphia (Friday, June 19th); Kansas City (Saturday, June 20th and Friday, July 3rd); and Seattle (Wednesday, July 1st),” MLB stated in a release.
Nine divisional matchups will wrap up the regular season on September 27. The Reds will be in Toronto, while Cleveland will be in Kansas City.
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