Padres, D-Backs Reportedly Expected to Play 2026 MLB Regular-Season Series in Mexico

Major League Baseball opened its 2025 season in Japan with a series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, and it could reportedly head to Mexico for the 2026 season.

Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Tuesday that there are ongoing discussions between the league, the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks to host a regular-season series in Mexico City in 2026.

It would come six years after the two National League West rivals were set to square off in a two-game series in Mexico in April 2020 before MLB had to cancel it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MLB ended up playing a 60-game regular season in 2020 with no fans in attendance.

Playing in Mexico would be nothing new for the Padres, who faced off against the San Francisco Giants in 2023. That was the first regular-season series between MLB teams in Mexico City, and San Diego took care of business with a two-game sweep.

The Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros then faced each other for two games in Mexico during the 2024 campaign.

San Diego also faced the Dodgers in South Korea to open the 2024 season in the first MLB regular-season game to take place in that country. As for Arizona, it has not played internationally since it faced the Dodgers in Australia at the start of the 2014 campaign.

A series between the Padres and Diamondbacks could mean plenty of star power for international fans in Mexico. San Diego alone features Fernando Tatís Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and more, while Arizona has Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen and Corbin Carroll, among others.

It would also be an opportunity for both teams to pick up key divisional wins.

San Diego has been to the playoffs in three of the last five years, while Arizona isn't that far removed from reaching the World Series in 2023. Battling the Dodgers in the NL West is no easy task, but the head-to-head wins against each other are also important for positioning in the postseason race.

And that division race may be coming to Mexico next year.