I am no expert in the field of chronometry, but I feel comfortable saying that the month of January 2026 sure felt like it lasted a lot longer than 31 days. It had to have been at least 84, right? All months without baseball feel like they go by more slowly, but this one, whew, this one sure dragged, didn’t it?
But today is Sunday, Feb. 1, and I am delighted to report: We have made it. We have made it to February.
It’s not like January had nothing -- there was plenty of Hot Stove action, the announcement of the new Hall of Fame inductees and some individual team fanfests. But February is when baseball finally, finally starts getting going. After a long offseason that stretched through November, December and January, we are almost there. Baseball is almost back.
And I really mean almost. Baseball will, in fact, return this month -- helpfully, the shortest month of the year. Once you get into February, you have Baseball Activities and, eventually, actual Baseball Games before you know it. Get out your calendar, because it’s all going to be happening over the next six weeks. Here’s a look at the key dates on the horizon.
Feb. 10-13: Pitchers and catchers report
The notion of players “reporting” to Spring Training is probably a little bit outdated. These players have been training all offseason -- the days when players had to go work as bricklayers in the winter are a century in the past -- and a high percentage of them are surely already at team facilities or in the general vicinity. It’s a year-round sport: Somewhere, your favorite player is likely stretching and doing long toss right now.
That said: It’s one thing to know they’re training, it’s another thing to actually witness them doing it. In just nine days now, you’ll see the players out there, in uniform, running drills, and you’ll be able to smell the freshly cut grass, and you’ll hear the pop of the ball hitting the mitt, and you will see just how well and truly close we really are. It will be good for the soul. It will make you feel like it’s all going to be OK. And it is happening very soon.
Feb. 20: Grapefruit and Cactus League games begin
You can go to the MLB.com schedule page right now, and you will see actual real-life baseball games, with first-pitch times, broadcast information and everything, right there, ready for you. The first game is Feb. 20, in Sarasota, Fla., the Spring Training home of the Orioles; they’ll be hosting the Yankees. That’s in 19 days!
But that is also, of course, just the start. There are seven games that day, including the annual Red Sox vs. Northeastern University game. (Adam Ottavino once pitched in this game. For Northeastern.) The Twins will also play the University of Minnesota that day; you never want to lose to the college kids! Every team will play on the 21st, and then we are off and running. The spring games start getting even more interesting on March 3, when MLB teams start playing international teams. There’s a reason for that ...
March 4-17: World Baseball Classic
Yep: It’s a World Baseball Classic year. Many of the game’s major stars are going to be playing in the tournament this year, from Aaron Judge for Team USA to Ronald Acuña Jr. for Venezuela to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the Dominican Republic to, of course, Shohei Ohtani for a Japan squad attempting to defend its 2023 title. (You may remember that transpired in rather dramatic fashion -- with Ohtani himself on the mound, although he will be limited to hitting this time around). There are also some very recognizable managers, from Albert Pujols for the Dominican to Yadier Molina for Puerto Rico to Hall of Fame electee Andruw Jones for the Netherlands.
The first exhibitions are indeed on March 3 -- USA-Giants, Panama-Yankees and Puerto Rico-Red Sox are some fun ones -- and pool play actually starts the next day in Tokyo, when Australia plays Chinese Taipei. The first Team USA game is against Brazil in Houston on March 6, and it all builds up to a final in Miami on March 17. This is your second March Madness this year.
March 19-22: Spring Breakout
This will be the third annual Spring Breakout, which features top prospects from every team playing against each other, and it’ll be your first time to see most of the best players who will make up the future of baseball. (It was your first chance to see Paul Skenes two years ago.)
This year's schedule, according to our own Jim Callis, features one game that is expected to pit baseball's top two prospects against each other (the Pirates’ Konnor Griffin and the Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle) and another game that is expected to pit the next two prospects on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list against each other (the Brewers’ Jesús Made and the Athletics' Leo De Vries). Spring Training is always about the future anyway. But in these games, that future is right now.
March 25: Yankees-Giants matchup kicks off the season
The schedule, which starts a little earlier in 2026, gives us one showcase game the night before the rest of baseball kicks into gear, and it’s a classic one. The Yankees will head to Oracle Park in San Francisco to face their former intracity rivals, and it should be fascinating, with Judge heading back to his home state to take his cuts against a team he almost signed with a few years ago. (In Judge’s only previous series there, in 2024, he went 6-for-10 with three homers.)
The Giants are in an interesting place as well. President of baseball operations Buster Posey continued to put his stamp on the franchise from the front office, plucking new manager Tony Vitello straight from the college ranks at the University of Tennessee. It was an unconventional hire, and the pressure will be on, right from the start.
This matchup will be the perfect way to whet your whistle before ...
March 26: Opening Day
After the previous day’s appetizer, almost everybody else plays on Thursday, March 26 (though a few opening series don’t begin until Friday), and it’ll go on all day. It begins at 1:15 p.m. ET at Citi Field, where the Pirates (and presumably Skenes) will face the new-look Mets, who will have a bunch of offseason additions making their team debuts.
The action continues all the way through the night, with the Guardians at Mariners starting the last game at 10:10 p.m. ET, in a battle of 2025 division champions. There will be a host of notable new faces in new places making team debuts, including Kyle Tucker with the Dodgers (vs. Diamondbacks), Pete Alonso with the Orioles (vs. Twins) and Alex Bregman with the Cubs (vs. Nationals). There will be aces on the mound (like Tarik Skubal in San Diego) and exciting big league debuts (like Munetaka Murakami for the White Sox in Milwaukee). There’s just baseball, all day. You will have made it.
It’s February. It’s almost here. It will, in fact, be here before you know it.