2026 Major League Baseball season

Schedule

Rule changes

Venues

Uniforms

Wholesale changes

• The Athletics unveiled a new gold alternate uniform, featuring a "Sacramento" script across the chest. This jersey replaces the existing gold alternate jersey with the "A's" logo featured on the chest.
• The Brewers tweaked their primary road uniform, swapping the gray base on the jersey in favor of powder blue. The Brewers become the third team since 2024 to wear colored jerseys as a primary road option following the Seattle Mariners and the Tampa Bay Rays, and the first to wear powder blue as a primary road uniform color since the Kansas City Royals and Montreal Expos in.
• The Orioles add a new alternate cap, featuring an orange "B" script lettering from their road uniform inside a black cap with orange brim.
• The Marlins are set to unveil a new teal alternate uniform, harkening back to the team's inaugural color scheme.

Anniversaries and special events

Media

Television

National

Linear television

• ESPN will exclusively broadcast 30 games, primarily on summer weeknights, along with games on Memorial Day and the second-half opener. The network also retains the rights to the MLB Little League Classic. Three of the 30 games will air on ABC.
• Fox will continue to air 24 Baseball Night in America games from March 28 to September 5 and September 26, the 2026 MLB All-Star Game, and a Thursday night game on September 17, all of these games will be regionalized with at least two games in each window. FS1 will also broadcast games, mainly on Saturday afternoons and Monday Nights, with seven additional games on Wednesday and Thursday Nights, which will be both non-exclusive and co-exist with regional broadcasts.
• NBC's schedule begins with a doubleheader on Opening Day. The broadcast network will then air 13 Sunday Night Baseball games on April 12 and from May 31 to August 30. NBC will also broadcast three straight Sunday afternoon games from August 23 to September 6. 11 additional Sunday Night Baseball games will air on NBCSN from March 29 to May 24 and from September 6 to 20 due to Sunday Night Basketball during the NBA season and Sunday Night Football during the NFL season. NBCSN will air the 18-game MLB Sunday Leadoff package from May 3 to August 30. The July 5 game will air on the NBC broadcast network as part of a special event known as "Star-Spangled Sunday", in which all games played that day will air exclusively on NBC Sports platforms. The broadcast network will also air the MLB draft, All-Star Futures Game and a primetime Labor Day game.
• TBS will continue to broadcast at least 26 MLB Tuesday games. Most games are blacked out in the home markets of the teams playing; however, TBS is allowed to co-exist once with a team's local broadcast.
• MLB Network will continue to broadcast a regular slate of games. While most games will be simulcasts of the teams' local broadcast, select games are produced by the network under its MLB Network Showcase banner. All games are blacked out in the home markets of the teams playing.
• UniMás and TUDN will air the weekly whiparound show MLB En Vivo on Tuesday nights throughout the season, the weekly studio show MLB Esta Semana on Saturday nights, and postseason coverage.

  Streaming

• Apple TV will continue to air Friday Night Baseball, two games will air every week throughout the season.
• The ESPN DTC service, Fox One, and HBO Max will simulcast national games shown on ESPN networks, Fox Sports, and TBS respectively.
• Netflix will air a game on Opening Night, the evening prior to the traditional slate of Opening Day games. The streaming service will also have the MLB at Field of Dreams game and the Home Run Derby.
• Peacock will simulcast NBC and NBCSN's games, along with exclusive Sunday Night Baseball and Sunday Leadoff games not aired on those linear networks. Peacock will also carry supplemental programming, including a whiparound show that will air after Sunday Leadoff and on the final day of the regular season. On July 5, Peacock will participate in "Star-Spangled Sunday", in which all games played that day will be exclusive to NBC Sports.
• ESPN and Peacock will each feature a non-exclusive "game of the day", blacked out in local markets.
• MLB.tv will continue to stream out-of-market games and all MLB Network games. MLB.tv will also be integrated into the ESPN app.

  Postseason

Local

• On March 3, 2025, the Orioles and Nationals reached a settlement to end the teams' dispute over television rights fee payments. MASN, which is owned and operated by the Orioles but airs both teams' games, pays rights fees to the Nationals. Through the settlement, the Nationals' agreement with the Orioles and MASN will end following the 2025 season. On January 14, 2026, MLB Local Media announced that they will take over production of Nationals games.
• On September 8, 2025, the Mets and SNY renewed its agreement with WPIX and Nexstar Media Group to air 30 games per-season on broadcast television, including five spring training games. Outside of New York City, the games will move to Nexstar stations in Albany, Binghamton, Syracuse, Utica, and Hartford.
• Root Sports, the television home of the Mariners since 1993, announced it would shut down following the 2025 season. MLB Local Media, which produced Mariners games for Root Sports in 2025, will replace Root as the Mariners local broadcaster.
• Prior to the season, Space City Home Network, the television home of the Astros, announced the launch of SCHN+, a direct-to-consumer streaming service costing $19.99 per month or $199.99 annually. The launch means that 2026 will be the first season that every Major League Baseball team has a direct-to-consumer streaming opion.

  FanDuel Sports Network teams

International

• ESPN will additionally air its slate of games in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and the Netherlands, and will air games through Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe.
• TNT Sports will additionally air its slate of games in Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
• Fox Sports will additionally air its slate of games in Argentina, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
• MLB Network International will air select games worldwide.

Radio

Retirements

• Miguel Rojas - October 9, 2025 ; will retire at the end of the 2026 season

Retired numbers

• Randy Johnson will have his #51 retired by the Seattle Mariners on May 2. Johnson will become the fourth Mariners player to have his number retired, and the second time #51 was retired by the team after Ichiro Suzuki was given the same honor the previous season.
• Jeff Kent will have his #21 retired by the San Francisco Giants on August 29. He will become the twelfth number retired by the team.