The Yankees and Giants will open the 2026 MLB season on March 25. We’ll be counting down to that date with our annual preview series, with each story looking ahead to the coming season by breaking down a particular topic, division by division.
Today: The must-watch player in each division
Baseball is a team sport, and one player, no matter how great they may be, can only make so much of a difference. Mike Trout has never won a playoff game, but the reason is not “Mike Trout isn’t good at baseball.” Only a team can win a game.
But there are some players who remain, nevertheless, unmissable. Players whose talent, whose ability, whose unmistakable they-were-put-on-Earth-specifically-to-play-baseball-ness make certain that you always make sure you’re back from the restroom or the concession stand so you can watch them. These are baseball’s must-watch players -- one per division.
AL East: Aaron Judge, Yankees
MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince just made the case last month that Judge might be the greatest right-handed hitter ever, and he’s hardly the first person to make that argument. It becomes easier to make every year. Judge has led the AL in WAR three out of the last four years, and he won the AL MVP Award each of those years. But the glory of watching Judge has nothing to do with numbers, at least unless you count “how far the ball went” as “numbers,” in which case, well, Statcast has you covered there as well: He can hit the ball very, very far.
In the macro sense, he will forever be judged, fairly or unfairly, on whether he can win a World Series with the Yankees. But when he comes to the plate, you don’t have to worry about the macro. You just get to watch the best hitter in the world, the larger-than-life figure, do things hardly anyone has ever done. Judge is one of two players on this list who, someday, you will tell your grandchildren stories about, and your grandchildren will probably not believe that they are true.
AL Central: Tarik Skubal, Tigers
The magic number, when it comes to how many Cy Young Awards will get you into the Hall of Fame, is generally thought to be three. Well, Skubal is the current favorite to win the 2026 AL Cy Young Award, and if he wins it, he’ll have his third … and it would be his third in a row, for good measure. He’s already one of only 12 pitchers to win two straight, so there’s no surprise why every single one of his starts is an absolute cannot-miss show.
There is still some debate as to whether Skubal will be in this division in September, because he'll be a highly sought-after trade target in his final season before free agency. That may depend on how all those other Tigers play around him. But wherever he is, he’ll make his team the favorite simply by walking out to the hill.
AL West: Nick Kurtz, Athletics
It is absolutely not too early to put Kurtz on this list. After all, look at what he has already done:
Imagine how silly you would feel if you had a chance to go to that game and skipped it. And remember: That was his rookie year. Kurtz was basically Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani for the four-plus months he was in the Majors, and while he’ll surely have to make some adjustments in his sophomore season, there is electric thunder in his bat.
This whole A’s team is exciting, packed with young hitters all rising at the same time. But Kurtz is the guy you can’t look away from. After all: You might just miss history. Again.
NL East: Juan Soto, Mets
You could really go with either Soto or Mets teammate Francisco Lindor here. (Apologies to Ronald Acuña Jr., Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and anybody else in this division you might lean toward as well.) But as purely enjoyable as it is to watch Lindor, Soto is a live wire: The guy is so hypnotic to watch at the plate that it is legitimately exciting to watch him not swing. It’s clear the team is going to be building around him for the next decade.
Soto’s first year in Flushing was a success, a classic Soto season with the bat -- plus an NL-high 38 steals. (Who saw that coming?) Of course, the one thing that went wrong for Soto in 2025 is that the Mets stumbled to the finish line and missed the playoffs, but if they ever win that World Series with Soto -- and my expectation is that they will -- there may well be a statue of him outside Citi Field. Here’s hoping the statue portrays him staring out at the pitcher after taking a pitch.
NL Central: Paul Skenes, Pirates
There was a temptation here to go with the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz, who sometimes makes you think the game of baseball was invented solely for him to dominate. (He seems to have every tool the game could possibly require, and a few it doesn’t.) But the production just isn’t there quite yet. Skenes, however? Yes, it is fair to say the production is there: Here is your reminder that he still has a career ERA under 2.00. (And no one would be the least bit surprised if it’s still under 2.00 when the season is over.)
But it’s not just about Skenes’ pitching. It’s about, as the kids might say, his aura. When he walks out to the mound, it’s obvious that we’re in for a show. He’s the best pitcher in baseball, or at least right up there with Skubal, but he’s also the most inherently watchable. In fact, it feels like we have already been watching him forever.
NL West: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers
We … probably don’t need to make this complicated. Can he have a better game then, uh, the greatest baseball game anyone has ever played? Might as well tune in to find out.