It’s so nice to finally say this: The New York Yankees will officially open the 2026 Major League Baseball season tonight in San Francisco against the Giants, so the spotlight is all on Aaron Judge, Max Fried, and company for the evening. The Opening Day roster is set, the i’s are dotted, the t’s are crossed, and we’re ready to watch some ball. Will this be the year for Judge to finally win his World Series and bring the Yankees No. 28? Let’s hope so.
In the meantime, we’d be remiss if we didn’t do
our annual Yankees predictions! I’ve polled the staff to get their thoughts on the upcoming season. Definitely feel free to play along with us, save your receipts, and see if you beat us! Nick Power was the best of the best for PSA last year, so he’s king of the clubhouse … for now.
2026 AL Standings
We’re not unanimous, but we do generally feel pretty good about the Yankees getting back on top as the leaders of the pack in the AL East. We also have the Mariners repeating as the AL West champs and the Tigers avenging their calamitous collapse from last year and this time winning their first AL Central since 2014. The remainder of the teams are mostly shuffled around in different spots (the Jays and Red Sox have interesting mixed opinions), but aside from John believing in the Angels just enough to say they won’t be dead last … yeah, the rest of the staff think the Halos will be awful. Sorry to Mike Trout, but that franchise is out on an island and should see a 12th consecutive quiet October.
2026 NL Standings
Dodgers good/Rockies bad/news at 11. Estevão saved the Nationals and Cardinals from unanimous last-place rankings, but Colorado was just a bridge too far.
Outside of the mostly-predictable NL West, we have the Phillies narrowly beating out the Mets for another NL East crown and the Cubs taking it from Milwaukee for their first full-season division title in nearly a decade.
Yankees leaders: AVG, HR, ERA, and WAR
Fond of this Judge fella, aren’t we? It’s hard to not pick Judge in most of these categories, but shout-out to John for being the No. 1 Cam Schlittler believer. Sincerely! As for the ERA leader, we settled on the clear-cut best reliever the Yankees have right now, closer and 2025 Trade Deadline addition David Bednar. I will say that personally, I did really think about Tim Hill a lot because I enjoy that goofy, soft-contact-lovin’ lefty. But I stuck with the Renegade.
Misc. Yankees predictions
Never change, Kunj. Most of us have another big homer season from Judge ahead while also remaining skeptical of Anthony Volpe as Shortstop of the Future.
MLB leaders: AVG, HR, ERA, and WAR
Judge won his first batting title last year, but he lost the ascendant Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. won the year before. He narrowly beat Judge out by a vote here, and it could be a close race in 2026. If that consensus vote can be counted as a very light surprise, then none will be found in the homer, ERA, and WAR leaders. Judge could beat Ohtani in WAR (and vice versa with homers), and someone like Tarik Skubal could beat Paul Skenes in ERA … but they are the safe bets.
Most team wins & losses, first manager fired
What was that I said earlier?
Dodgers good/Rockies bad/news at 11.
Yeah. We did get some bold picks though, and that’s not even counting Kunj’s annual absurd 161-win prediction (excluded from the average).
The managerial question is particularly interesting because there were so many new hires around the game this past offseason and it’s generally rare for teams to can their skippers so soon after hiring them these days. So Josh, Estevão, and Sam may be right in that no one gets fired — that has happened twice in recent memory! The Mets’ Carlos Mendoza and the Cardinals’ Oli Marmol tied for the most votes here, but I still think there’s a chance that impatient Astros owner Jim Crane just pins their decline on Dusty Baker’s successor, Joe Espada, and opts for a new voice midseason.
MLB Awards
Since he helped vanquish the Yankees last postseason, Toronto’s Trey Yesavage was a popular pick for AL Rookie of the Year around these parts, but he’s also at the disadvantage of missing the start of the season with a right shoulder impingement. Although he could overcome that of course, we’re also big fans of up-and-coming Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle, who cracked their Opening Day roster and will debut tomorrow in San Diego. He got the narrow nod for our AL Rookie of the Year pick. Over in the Senior Circuit, starting 2026 at Triple-A hasn’t diminished our enthusiasm for Pirates superstar shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin. Keep an eye out for when that kid debuts — he only turns 20 in late April.
Beyond the those picks, our Cy and MVP choices are probably not terribly surprising. We see a second-straight Cy for Skenes, a third consecutive MVP for Judge, a fourth in a row for Ohtani. We do, however, have 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet dethroning Skubal’s multi-year reign on the award, albeit while six members of the staff are calling for a three-peat.
Playoffs
We close with playoff predictions. The Wild Card situation is an absolute toss-up, especially in the NL where 10 of the 15 teams got Wild Card votes (and the Dodgers only didn’t because they’re unanimous to win the NL West). But we made our best guesses and still came down fairly clearly on a Yankeees/Tigers ALCS and a rematch of the 2024 NLCS with the Dodgers and Mets. We also have a 2024 World Series rematch … and couldn’t reach a decision, as both teams earned seven votes apiece. Call it a toss-up! I’d say “tie goes to the home site” but there are enough cynical Yankees fans around here that I’d still call that a dead heat.
So what are your picks for the 2026 season? Let us know in the comments below!
