MLB Schedule 2027 Released for Opening Day, All-Star Weekend and Key Dates

Baseball fans won't have to wait quite as long for the start of the 2027 season next spring.

MLB released its schedule for the 2027 campaign on Thursday, and it features the earliest Opening Day ever. Here's a look at some key dates.

Opening Night: March 24

Opening Day: March 25

All-Star Game: July 13

Regular Season Ends: Sept. 26

As it did this year, the season will begin with an Opening Night game that will be televised on Netflix, though the teams have not been picked for that matchup just yet. The New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants played in the 2026 Opening Night game.

Opening Day will feature a traditional slate, with matchups inlcuding Cleveland at the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis at Cincinnati, the Chicago White Sox at Detroit, Texas at Houston, Minnesota at Kansas City, Atlanta at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets at Miami, the Los Angeles Angels at Milwaukee, Toronto at the New York Yankees, the Athletics at Pittsburgh, Arizona at San Diego, Colorado at San Francisco, Boston at Seattle, Baltimore at Tampa Bay and Philadelphia at Washington.

The Chicago Cubs will host All-Star Weekend at Wrigley Field. It's the first time since 1990 that Wrigley will host the All-Star Game and the first time since 2003 that the city of Chicago has hosted All-Star Weekend.

Of course, the question on everyone's mind is whether the 2027 season will have a delayed start or whether it will be played at all.

The current labor contract expires in December, and with owners proposing a salary cap, a lockout is widely expected. The last time a salary cap was proposed in 1994, it led to a 7.5-month stoppage that cancelled the World Series.

In 2022, a new agreement wasn't reached until March, which pushed the start of the season back about a week.

But a lockout could come even before then.

A poll conducted by The Athletic's Sam Blum in June revealed that 80 of the 101 players surveyed voted "yes" when asked whether the 2026 season will end in a lockout.

For now, the MLB will have a historically early start to the season, but players, owners and fans likely understand that baseball may not end up starting until well after the March 24 Opening Night.