Major League Baseball today announced that 2026 Spring Training will officially begin on Friday, February 20th in Arizona and Florida before a full slate of Cactus and Grapefruit League games are played on Saturday, February 21st. Friday’s slate features four Cactus League contests (AZ @ COL; SD @ SEA; KC @ TEX; CWS @ CHC), one Grapefruit League game (NYY @ BAL), and two exhibition matchups (Northeastern Univ. @ BOS; Univ. of Minnesota @ MIN).
The 2026 Spring Training schedule includes 28 exhibition games featuring Major League Clubs competing with World Baseball Classic National Teams. Fourteen games with World Baseball Classic teams will be played across the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues on both Tuesday, March 3rd and Wednesday, March 4th prior to the scheduled North American start to the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Friday, March 6th in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Houston, Texas; and Miami, Florida.
The third annual Spring Breakout will be played from March 19th-22nd, showcasing baseball’s future stars as Clubs assemble their top prospects to play in exhibition games against one another. Spring Breakout will begin with five contests on Thursday, March 19th, headlined by a matchup of top-10 farm systems according to MLB Pipeline as the seventh-ranked Mets prospects host the 10th-ranked Rays prospects in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Additional top-10 matchups include a pair of contests on Friday, March 20th as the third-ranked Mariners prospects visit the fourth-ranked Brewers prospects in Phoenix, Arizona, and the sixth-ranked Tigers prospects visit the ninth-ranked Pirates prospects in Bradenton, Florida. Top-ranked prospect Konnor Griffin of the Pirates and number two overall prospect Kevin McGonigle of the Tigers could potentially meet in the Pirates-Tigers matchup, while number three overall prospect Leo De Vries of the Athletics and number four overall prospect Jesús Made of the Brewers could meet in the final Spring Breakout contest between the Athletics and Brewers in Mesa, Arizona on Sunday, March 22nd. A full listing of Spring Breakout games accompanies this press release.
A total of 92 players appeared in the Majors in 2025 after their participation in last March’s Spring Breakout, including 103 players who have been featured on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list this year. In addition, 46 of the 50 players on the 2025 All-Star Futures Game rosters took part in Spring Breakout this year, and 89 players participating in the Arizona Fall League were also featured during Spring Breakout last March.
The Athletics will host the Los Angeles Angels for a pair of games at Las Vegas Ballpark on Saturday, March 7th and Sunday, March 8th. The Detroit Tigers will travel to Scottsdale, Arizona to play two games against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Monday, March 23rd and Tuesday, March 24th in a crossover matchup between Grapefruit and Cactus League clubs. In another crossover contest, the New York Yankees will visit the Chicago Cubs on March 23rd-24th at Sloan Field in Mesa, Arizona.
A number of exhibition games from Sunday, March 22nd-Tuesday, March 24th will be played at Major and Minor League ballparks. The scheduled meetings thus far include the three-game Freeway Series between the two-time defending World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium on March 22nd and at Dodger Stadium on March 23rd-24th; a two-game set between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals at Camden Yards on March 23rd and Nationals Park on March 24th; the Kansas City Royals visiting the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on March 23rd-24th; the Cleveland Guardians visiting the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on March 23rd-24th; the Cincinnati Reds visiting the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 23rd-24th; the San Francisco Giants visiting the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on March 20th at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California and hosting the Monterrey Sultanes at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California on March 23rd-24th; and the Houston Astros hosting the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys at Daikin Park in Houston, Texas on March 23rd-24th. Additional exhibition games at Major and Minor League ballparks are expected to be added in the coming months.
The 2026 regular season will begin with an Opening Night game played on Wednesday, March 25th as the Giants host the Yankees at Oracle Park. Traditional Opening Day on Thursday, March 26th will feature 14 games, including six Interleague matchups and two divisional games.
Individual Club schedules can be found at each of the respective 30 Club sites.
Spring Breakout Schedule
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*Note: Parentheses indicate current club farm system rankings, per MLB Pipeline
2026 World Baseball Classic Exhibition Games Schedule
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