This week was big for planning ahead, first with the 2025 major league postseason schedule dropping on Tuesday, including the wild card round starting on September 30 and the Division Series round beginning
on October 4.
Also on Tuesday, the Double-A Tulsa Drillers announced their 2026 schedule, which begins on Thursday, April 2, a date the team says matches 1998 for the earliest season opener in franchise history. Tulsa’s schedule runs through September 6.
None of the other Dodgers minor league affiliates have officially announced their 2026 schedules, but next year’s slates are online for both Triple-A Oklahoma City and High-A Great Lakes as well.
Looking at the minor league schedules, it fits the same pattern as recent years. Triple-A starts the earliest, with Oklahoma City’s first game set for Friday, March 27 at home against Albuquerque. Double-A and both Class-A levels start the next weekend.
MLB hasn’t yet announced its 2026 schedule, but it always lines up with the minor league slates. That means opening day in the majors will likely be on Thursday, March 26, which would be the earliest domestic opening day in the history of the league. Last year MLB announced the 2025 schedule on July 18, the announcement the year before came on July 13, and in 2022 the 2023 schedule came on August 24. So expect a 2026 MLB schedule announcement some time soon.
Back to the minors for a moment, 2026 will be a year of change for the Dodgers, whose Low-A affiliate will switch from Rancho Cucamonga to a new Ontario team that hasn’t yet been named (that name will be revealed on September 18). But in perusing the online schedules of every other California League team, a 2026 schedule for Ontario can be gleaned. Ontario is set to play its inaugural game in its new park, which is currently being built, on Friday, April 3 against Lake Elsinore, a Padres affiliate.
None of this has yet been officially announced, but it looks like this will be Ontario’s first schedule.
