Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
We’re very early in the 2026 MLB season, but there’s still been enough action to shock and surprise us. This week, we asked Yankees fans about which American League rival had gotten off to the most surprising start, with the options consisting of a number of clubs
off to the disappointing starts: the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles and Mariners.
The results are in, and it’s our rivals in Boston that have surprised us the most thus far:
The Red Sox garnered as many votes as the other three choices combined, and with good reason. At the time of the poll, the Red Sox were a dreadful 2-8, and they needed to win the last two games of their series with Milwaukee this week just to get to 4-9 and four games back of the Yankees for first in the AL East with the Junior Circuit’s worst record. Boston’s lineup has cobbled together a shoddy .646 OPS, while their pitching staff has yielded the seventh-highest wOBA in the league. There’s plenty of time for Boston to stabilize, but their start has been poor enough to cause some high-profile fans to start panicking.
All that said, there’s reason for concern elsewhere as well, particularly in Toronto and Seattle. The Blue Jays’ 6-7 is far from disastrous, but their injury bill is; Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, José Berríos, Trey Yesavage, and Shane Bieber are all on the IL at the moment, putting Toronto in a tough spot as they’ll now need to hope that their depth players can keep them from falling in a hole. The Mariners benefit from playing in a weaker division, but at 5-9 they’ve really scuffled out of the gate.
Now, onto our MLB-wide fan polls, which simply asked which team would win each division:
In related news, with Toronto, Baltimore, and Boston all off to iffy starts, the Yankees are the overwhelming choice by MLB fans to take the AL East. We’ve seen this movie before, with the Yankees consistently getting out to early division leads in recent seasons, but not consistently finishing the year in first in the East. Their stellar pitching so far has them looking like the favorites in perhaps the toughest division in baseball, but there’s still a very long way to go.
Here are the results for the other five divisions:
- AL Central: Tigers (55%; runner-up: Guardians, 28%)
- AL West: Mariners (69%; runner-up: Astros, 18%)
- NL East: Phillies (40%; runner-up: Braves, 29%)
- NL Central: Brewers (56%; runner-up: Cubs, 24%)
- NL West: Dodgers (88%; runner-up: Padres, 5%)
There are a few interesting nuggets here. Despite rough starts from the Mariners and Tigers, MLB fans still tab those squads to secure the AL West and AL Central, respectively. Interestingly, the Phillies, despite an offseason that left their fans wanting and a third-place spot in the standings currently, rate as the top choice in the NL East, with the Mets not to be found in the top two.
The Brewers remain the top dog in the NL Central, off to a fine start but with teams like the Reds and Pirates also playing decently out of the gate. That said, the Cubs still come in second in the polls, and are likely still the team that should give Milwaukee their stiffest challenge. Out west, well, there’s little surprise to be found, as the expectation remains that the Dodgers will run away with the division.
These survey results are sponsored by FanDuel.
