1 Sentence For Every MLB Team Entering 2026 Spring Training
It's that time of year again. Mitts popping. Bats cracking. Fastballs zipping. And all of it for the first time in 2026.
Welcome to spring training, where it's time to get to know all 30 teams in MLB all over again.
For the sake of helping out, we've summed up every team in one sentence—plus an accompanying paragraph or two to flesh out the general idea. The goal, either way, is to really get to the essence of what each team is all about this year.
We'll go division by division, starting in the American League East and ending in the National League West.
American League East
1 of 6
Baltimore Orioles
They were taking notes as they watched the Blue Jays in 2025.
The Blue Jays took everyone by surprise last year. They not only went from worst-to-first in the AL East, but ultimately came just two outs shy of winning the World Series and completely changed their reputation in the process.
After an exciting and expensive offseason, the Orioles seem determined to do pretty much the same thing in 2026. And despite already getting bad injury news on Jackson Holliday, early projections from FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus at least have them down for a winning record.
Boston Red Sox
Trust them, the whole 'pitching and defense' thing is going to work.
The Red Sox purportedly wanted to add power to their lineup during the winter, but basically chucked that plan as soon as they lost Alex Bregman. They instead went all-in on pitching (i.e., Ranger Suárez) and defense (i.e., Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin) as their new identity.
It's an interesting decision for a team that plays home games at Fenway Park. The hope in Boston now is that this won't prove to be a case of chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, himself a former pitcher, having blinders on.
New York Yankees
Their last World Series already feels like a long time ago.
Once the Yankees lost Juan Soto to the Mets last winter, they didn't have much choice but to pivot after their run to the World Series in 2024. This time around, pivoting arguably should have been Plan A after a step back in 2025.
Instead, the Yankees made Cody Bellinger the centerpiece of a "run it back" campaign. Brian Cashman thinks you're a hater if you think this is a bad idea, which is probably at the top of the list of offseason takes that could age poorly.
Tampa Bay Rays
They're (probably) up to something.
The Rays didn't have a good season in 2024, and their most notable winter transactions involved departures. Brandon Lowe, Shane Baz, and Josh Lowe are gone now, and the projections point to another fourth-place finish.
These being the Rays, though, it's never easy to shake the feeling that they know something the rest of us don't. To wit, their pitching staff looks better the closer you look at it, especially if Shane McClanahan stays healthy.
Toronto Blue Jays
Does anyone have a First Aid kit handy?
The Blue Jays are entering this season as the defending American League champs and, arguably, the on-paper favorite to represent the Junior Circuit in the Fall Classic all over again.
However, the injury bug has already taken big bites out of Shane Bieber (forearm fatigue), Bowden Francis (UCL surgery), and Anthony Santander (shoulder surgery). If there's a good way to start a title defense, that's not it.
American League Central
2 of 6
Chicago White Sox
Fewer than 100 losses is the goal.
Misery was the White Sox's default in 2023, 2024 and 2025, which saw them rack up seasons of 101, 121 and 102 losses, respectively. But all rough seas must eventually give way to calm waters, and that moment may have arrived on the South Side.
The White Sox winning the Munetaka Murakami sweepstakes was a genuine surprise, and it wasn't even the only notable win in an offseason that also saw other signings and a productive trade of Luis Robert Jr. Even if the White Sox aren't good, they should at least be better in 2026.
Cleveland Guardians
They're going to have to beat the odds (again).
Remember when the Guardians came from way behind to beat the Tigers for the AL Central title last year? It was a big deal at the time, and they built on it by doing…well, basically nothing during the offseason.
You could argue that they didn't need to, but that would require looking at their roster and not noticing the seemingly ever-present shortage of pop in their offense. Even if they're used to overcoming that, it's still south of optimal.
Detroit Tigers
How to salvage an offseason with three easy decisions.
The Tigers looked like an offseason loser last month, and they were only going to dig their hole deeper if they traded Tarik Skubal. It never seemed likely, but it was perhaps more probable once the two sides got into an arbitration fight.
It's amazing how things have changed since then. Skubal is still around and clearly going nowhere, and he's now flanked in the rotation by Framber Valdez and the returning prodigal son, Justin Verlander. Lots of fun should ensue this season.
Kansas City Royals
There isn't a bigger sleeper in the American League.
The Royals didn't make much noise over the winter, which is arguably a missed opportunity. They made the playoffs in 2024 but never really took off, ultimately finishing with an 82-win season in 2025.
Still, underestimate this team at your peril. The pitching staff is loaded and Bobby Witt Jr. won't be the only hitter who benefits from Kauffman Stadium's new dimensions. Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen should be on everyone's breakout boards.
Minnesota Twins
If anyone checked out at the 2025 trade deadline, it hasn't gotten better.
The Twins blew it all up last July, and the most notable thing they've done since then is part ways with the president of baseball operations, Derek Falvey, on January 30.
Though the team's projections are better than you'd think, there isn't an organization in the AL giving off worse vibes than this one. It'll take a miracle season to make those go away.
American League West
3 of 6
Athletics
Come for the hitting, leave early because of the pitching.
Lawrence Butler was one of the most exciting hitters in the latter half of 2024, and he's slated to bat seventh for the 2026 A's. That's how stacked this lineup is, and it all revolves around Nick Kurtz after his star-making 2025 campaign.
As for the pitching, maybe it's unprofessional to say it sucks, but it does. The A's ranked 27th in ERA last year, and nothing they did during the winter inspires hope for better mound work in 2026.
Houston Astros
The dynasty is on its deathbed.
If one year is a fluke, two years are a trend. The Astros made it as far as the ALCS seven years in a row between 2017 and 2023, but then flamed out in the Wild Card round in 2024 and didn't even make the playoffs in 2025.
They're still good, and a healthy season from Yordan Alvarez is among the biggest possible difference-makers for 2026. But with Framber Valdez becoming merely the latest Astros star to leave, the franchise just keeps getting lighter on star power.
Los Angeles Angels
Nobody is happy about any of this.
For a decade, writing about the Angels meant going "Well, at least they have Mike Trout" or "Well, at least they have Shohei Ohtani." But Ohtani has been gone for two years, and Trout's prime ended with the 2010s.
What's left is a hodgepodge of semi-interesting players and guys whose time has come and gone. The sum of these parts is not just a bad team, but one that is vaguely depressing.
Seattle Mariners
It's World Series or bust.
This isn't really a hot take, but it feels like one because the Mariners are the only franchise in MLB that has never been to the World Series. And this year marks a half-century since their birth in 1977.
The M's only came eight outs short of the Fall Classic in 2025, however, and their revenge tour for 2026 is built upon a returning core of stars and deeper depth. PECOTA has them as the best team in the AL, and it's not close.
Texas Rangers
Still out to prove 2023 wasn't a fluke.
In retrospect, the Rangers' 2023 World Series win sure looks like lightning in a bottle. They weren't good before, and they haven't been good since. And right now, they generally look kind of mid.
They can beat expectations if Brandon Nimmo drives the offense and MacKenzie Gore further strengthens an already elite rotation. If not, the team will have to seriously consider a blow-up and a new direction.
National League East
4 of 6
Atlanta Braves
The new additions are nice, but they feel irrelevant.
The Braves really rounded out their depth during the winter, and everyone is underrating their deal with ace reliever Robert Suarez. He's about as solid as they come in the late innings.
And yet, this team is still going to live or die on its core. And after back-to-back years of injuries (notably to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider) and diminishing returns (especially from Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies), the outlook for "live" is not what it used to be.
Miami Marlins
Yes, Sandy Alcantara still plays for them.
The Marlins offloaded some of their surplus pitching this winter, including Edward Cabrera to the Cubs and Ryan Weathers to the Yankees. In the face of all odds, however, they still have Alcantara atop their rotation.
Even so, it's hard to see anything more than mediocrity in this team's immediate future. It's not an appreciably better roster than the one that produced 79 wins in 2025, and the NL East hasn't gotten any easier.
New York Mets
If this big swing doesn't connect, there should be Hell to pay.
Because the signing of Juan Soto only led to an 83-win season, it wasn't the worst idea for the Mets to shake things up. And did they ever, particularly in swapping out Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil for Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, and Luis Robert Jr.
The finished product is obviously a contender, but it doesn't quite jibe with the whole run-prevention thing. And with Francisco Lindor already recovering from surgery, you can see how calamity could ensue, and the Mets could be forced back to the drawing board.
Philadelphia Phillies
Officially expecting different results from the same process.
To be fair, nobody is mad that the Phillies re-signed Kyle Schwarber. Even further in their defense, they did try to sign Bichette before he opted to head to Queens.
However, the Phillies are still basically running it back after the 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons, each of which made it clear that the status quo wasn't quite good enough. Now everyone is a year older, and Zack Wheeler's acehood seems very much in jeopardy after thoracic outlet surgery.
Washington Nationals
Miles Mikolas is their No. 1 starter.
The Nationals' rebuild is ongoing, and it got some forward momentum through trades of MacKenzie Gore and Jose A. Ferrer. The more prospects the organization has, the better.
In the meantime, though, it's ugly at the major league level. There really is no better supporting argument than Mikolas as their No. 1 starter, as he was one of the worst starters in the majors in each of the last three seasons.
National League Central
5 of 6
Chicago Cubs
They really are going for it this time.
In recent years, the knock on the Cubs was that they kept refusing to go pedal-to-the-medal as they put contending teams together. Given the organization's considerable resources, it was frankly infuriating.
But now? They're looking at a franchise-record $231 million payroll after an offseason that was highlighted by the signing of Alex Bregman. You genuinely love to see it, and that much more so given the opening Milwaukee gave the Cubs this winter.
Cincinnati Reds
There isn't a bigger sleeper in the National League.
The Reds got their fans' hopes up when they teased a run at Kyle Schwarber, which was never going to work out—and indeed didn't. As much as Eugenio Suárez was a nice consolation prize, well, he's still not Schwarber.
Tell you this, though: any rotation that has Chase Burns as its No. 5 is a rotation to be feared like the plague. And if Elly De La Cruz bounces back after an injury-marred 2025, this team is going to take a lot of people by surprise.
Milwaukee Brewers
They'll probably surprise everyone (again).
Even for a team that makes an annual habit of beating expectations, the Brewers winning 97 games last year was still quite the flex. In the abstract, it's a bummer that they followed a year like that by mostly subtracting from their roster.
The Brewers always find a way, though, and two guys who can really make 2026 pop are Jackson Chourio and Jacob Misiorowski. We haven't seen either one's best yet, and the upside there is high enough for them to chase major awards.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The race to not waste Paul Skenes is on.
Pirates fans might want to sit down for this one, but FanGraphs actually has the Bucs as the second-best team in the NL Central for 2026. They haven't finished that high in the standings since 2015.
Skenes himself has a lot to do with that, and the front office did a solid job of going out and getting talent to flesh out the rest of the roster. Ben Cherington and company also deserve credit for Konnor Griffin, for whom the sky is the limit.
St. Louis Cardinals
They're finally moving in the right direction.
For a team that was a mainstay in the playoffs from 2000 to 2022, it's really shocking how much the Cardinals faded from relevance in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Hence, the pivot to Chaim Bloom, who spent his first winter in charge cutting payroll and cashing in trade chips for prospects. The result is not a good team, but the clean slate will do for a sign of progress.
National League West
6 of 6
Arizona Diamondbacks
Frankly, they should have traded Ketel Marte.
The Diamondbacks haven't had it much better than the Rangers since the 2023 World Series. They also have a bigger problem: how to contend in a division that the Dodgers rule with an iron fist.
Staying the course after an 82-loss season in 2025 was not the answer, but the D-backs more or less did so. That most notably involved not trading Marte, which feels like a mistake even before his value has had a chance to decline.
Colorado Rockies
Abandon all hope, ye who root for this team.
The Rockies are coming off three straight 100-loss seasons. They hired a Moneyball relic to run their front office. And he apparently decided the best thing for surviving Coors Field was to sign three pitch-to-contact starting pitchers.
As bad as it's been, it could still be worse. That's just where the Rockies are right now.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Just try and stop them.
So, let's see here. The Dodgers are two-time defending World Series champs. They already had the best player in baseball, and they got both the best overall player and best relief pitcher on the market this winter.
They're a problem, alright. So much so that a three-peat is very much in the cards. In fact, it almost feels inevitable ahead of a winter of labor strife for which doing something about the Dodgers will be a major theme.
San Diego Padres
This cat is running out of lives.
The Padres are the one team in the NL West that has cracked the code for being a consistent thorn in the side of the Dodgers. They made the playoffs four times between 2020 and 2025, and even beat the Dodgers in the 2022 postseason.
Things aren't looking so good now, though. Even A.J. Preller wasn't able to pull off any surprises this winter, and ownership's main priority seems to be selling the team. The general vibe is that of a nice run that is running out of time.
San Francisco Giants
They really should be more than just a fringe contender.
The Giants are in the mix for a 2026 playoff spot precisely because of the big swings Buster Posey saw fit to take. He had a big hand in keeping Matt Chapman on board, and he was the guy behind the Willy Adames signing and the Rafael Devers trade.
Today, though, Giants fans have every right to wonder where the big swings went. It was a disappointing winter, particularly in terms of adding pitching underneath Logan Webb. As a result, the Giants only look like a candidate for 85-ish wins.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
