It’s that time of year again…Purple Row staff predictions!
Today marks Opening Day of the 2026 season with the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants square off at 6:05pm MT on Netflix. The Rockies, on the other hand, have to wait until Friday to start their redemption tour from their historic 2025 campaign. They once again will open in Florida, but this time they start in Miami against the Marlins. They’ll play three games there before heading north of the border to take on the defending AL champion
Toronto Blue Jays. Once they finish their six-game opening series, they’ll return for the Home Opener against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 3rd.
With that all said, turning the page to 2026, here’s what the Purple Row staff thinks will happen during this baseball season:
Let’s start with a win total
Last year, the majority of the staff predicted the Rockies would go 62-100 — and boy were we wrong. Not only did the Rockies finish 43-119, but they also fired nearly all of their staff to clean the slate.
This year, our staff was still relatively pessimistic — nobody predicted fewer than 94 losses — but the most pessimistic person still predicted a 14-win jump to 57-105. The majority (3) predicted 60-102, while 62-100 and 63-99 weren’t far behind with two votes apiece. The most optimistic person predicts 68-94.
National League winners
In 2025, the Purple Row staff once again unanimously predicted that the back-to-back reigning-champion Los Angeles Dodgers would win the NL West, and they did. This year, however, one person thinks the San Diego Padres will finally break through and dethrone the mighty Dodgers.
In a flip from last year, 50% of the staff predicts that the Chicago Cubs will reclaim the NL Central crown. 40% believe the Milwaukee Brewers will retain the crown, and one person believes in the Cincinnati Reds.
In 2025, 70% of staffers believed the Philadelphia Phillies would be victorious in the NL East, and they were correct. However, last year the remaining 30% was split between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets. This year, the minority are united with the Mets.
As far as Wild Cards go, the majority of the staff (40%) was split four ways between the Braves, Cubs, Padres and San Francisco Giants.
American League winners
Switching leagues, the answers were a little more concise this year than last.
In the AL West, 10 out of 10 respondents believe the Seattle Mariners will repeat as champs.
The AL Central was our most sporadic division in 2025 with four different teams receiving votes, but this year, the staff appear more united in their predictions. 80% of them believe the Detroit Tigers will reclaim their crown, while 20% believe the Kansas City Royals will surprise everyone.
The AL East proved to be as divisive as the NL Central. Six respondents think the Toronto Blue Jays will repeat, while three think the New York Yankees will take the crown. One person thinks the Boston Red Sox will be victorious.
As far as Wild Cards go, the vast majority (7) believe the Royals will make the postseason. The next closest is the Red Sox with five votes, and then there’s a three-way tie between the Blue Jays, Yankees and Baltimore Orioles for the final spot.
Champions
The pennant races are where things get more divided. In the NL, it’s not surprising that four of 10 respondents think that the Dodgers will go for a three-peat. Two folks believe in the Phillies, while the Brewers, Mets, Padres and Giants each received one vote.
On the AL side, six folks think the Mariners will break through this year. Three think the Blue Jays will make another run, and one person believes in the Red Sox.
Overall, the Dodgers edged out the Mariners as favorites to win the World Series by a vote of 4-3. The other three teams receiving one vote each were the Padres, Brewers and Red Sox.
Hardware
As far as individual awards go, Shohei Ohtani (LAD) continues his domination as the favorite to win NL MVP, receiving 70% of the vote. Juan Soto (NYM) received two votes, while Elly De La Cruz (CIN) received one.
On the AL side, things were a little more divided. Aaron Judge (NYY) still received the majority of the votes (3) but the rest was split between Bobby Witt Jr. (KC), Vlad Guerrero Jr. (2), Cal Raleigh (1), Julio Rodríguez (SEA), and Roman Anthony (BOS).
For the Cy Youngs, the staff was equally confident in Paul Skenes (PIT) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD). Logan Webb (SF) and Tarik Skubal (DET) also received one vote each — which must mean that someone is predicting that Skubal will be traded midseason to the Dodgers!
On the AL side, Skubal just edged out Garrett Crochet (BOS) by a vote of 5-4. Paul Skenes also received a vote, so maybe the Tigers will trade Skubal for him!
Rookies of the Year can be difficult to predict, but the majority believe that Konnor Griffin (PIT) will win in the National League. Nolan McLean (NYM) and TJ Rumfield (COL) each received two votes, while JJ Wetherholt (STL) and Charlie Condon (COL) each received one vote.
On the AL side, Kazuma Okamoto (TOR) and Munetaka Murakami (CWS) each received two votes. Carter Jensen (KC), Dylan Beavers (BAL), Kevin McGonigle (DET), and Trey Yesavage (TOR) each received one. Two people did not vote.
Bold predictions
Now is the fun part of the staff predictions! 2026 will be a very interesting and important year for the Rockies — given all they went through last year and all the changes they’ve made — so let’s see what people think!
Here are some of our Rockies-specific predictions:
- The Rockies are active at the trade deadline and move Doyle, Tovar, Castro, Lorenzen, Sugano, Quintana, and at least two relievers.
- The Rockies will NOT lose 100 games.
- The Rockies will have a winning record on Tuesday games.
- Michael Lorenzen will set a career-high in wins (at least 10)
- The Rockies will have three players with 30 homers (Hunter Goodman, Ezequiel Tovar, and Jordan Beck)
- Mickey Moniak leads the Rockies in homers despite being traded during the season.
- Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle will have bounce-back seasons and both represent the Rockies at the All-Star Game.
- Charlie Condon makes his MLB debut in June, playing in the outfield after Tyler Freeman and Troy Johnston are DFA’d. TJ Rumfield continues to be the everyday first baseman and gets ROY votes.
- Ryan Feltner has a bounceback year and leads the team in wins and ERA. Kyle Freeland also finishes with the second-best season of his career.
And others to watch around MLB:
- 40-40 season from multiple players in the same season for the first time in MLB history.
- The White Sox, Nationals, and Angels all finish worse than the Rockies.
- There will be not one, but 2 perfect games thrown this year.
- The Cincinnati Reds will make the playoffs.
- The Dodgers will not be in a playoff spot at the All-Star Break.
- Dodgers lose in the divisional round.
- Growing tensions with the CBA cause the Players Union to preemptively go on strike mid-season. Basically a repeat of 1994.
- Ronald Acuña Jr. and Elly De La Cruz both steal 100 bases.
- Expansion cities are announced this calendar year.
- Pirates will not be eliminated from the playoff race until late September
Some of these bold predictions will come true, and we’ll all wish we had come up with them ourselves. But either way, baseball is back everyone! Stay tuned for our community predictions later this afternoon!
Happy MLB Opening Day!
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