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.
Previously: The must-watch player in each division.
Today: The team in each division with the most on the line.
There are stakes for every team, every year. Some teams are World Series or bust; some teams have a minimum of reaching the postseason; some teams are starting over and just looking for any kind of improvement. But every year matters. Every year, in a team’s history, makes a difference.
For some teams, 2026 feels like a flashpoint year, when they must put up or shut up. They’ve invested in winning and, thus, if they don’t succeed, will be facing some extremely difficult questions and decisions the next offseason. They’ve got everything on the line, right now.
These years can turn out great, of course. The Blue Jays absolutely were one of these teams heading into 2025. But then again, so were the Twins. (And they now have someone else in charge.)
As part of our ongoing season preview, here’s a look at the team in each division with the most on the line.
AL East: Yankees
You could also go with the Orioles here, given everything that went wrong for them in 2025 and all that they’ve done this offseason to turn things back around. But let’s not kid ourselves: Until the Yankees win that 28th World Series title they’ve been seeking for 16 straight seasons now, they may well be the team with the most on the line in a particular season in all of baseball.
That’s particularly true this year, considering they just took a step back from their 2024 AL pennant season and they have not been all that active in adding new players this offseason – though they took the obvious step of bringing back Cody Bellinger. Aaron Judge, the likely Hall of Famer whose Cooperstown plaque is going to be achingly incomplete if he never wins a ring with the Yankees, is yet another year older.
To get where they want to go this year, the Yankees have to both get healthy – it’ll sure be nice when Gerrit Cole returns – and stay healthy. That isn’t always easy when you have a team this old. But they don’t really have a choice: As always, it’s World Series title or bust for the Yanks.
AL Central: Tigers
Even with the arbitration hearing with Tarik Skubal coming up, it looks increasingly unlikely that the Tigers are going to be trading their two-time Cy Young Award winner (and pending free agent) before the season starts. That makes sense: He’s, uh, really good. But it also puts a big target on the horizon for this season in Detroit. They had better win this (very winnable) division.
For all the excitement the Tigers have generated over the past couple of seasons, it should be noted that, after their collapse down the stretch last year, they still haven’t won the AL Central since 2014. This team is starting to get a little bit older — particularly compared to the rest of the teams in the division — and they are reaching the point where that lack of a division title is starting to look dangerously close to having missed their window. The Tigers still look like they have enough talent to be the best team in this division. But will they ever actually be that?
AL West: Rangers
Obviously, it’s a good thing when your team wins a World Series, particularly when it’s your first one. Winning the World Series is very fun, people like it, and I’d recommend it to everyone. But it’s really a good thing the Rangers went on that magical run to win the World Series in 2023. That season is in fact the only one in which the Rangers have even made the playoffs since they were swept out of the 2016 ALDS. In fact, it’s their only winning season over that span, amazingly enough, despite what looked like a fertile farm system to go along with significant investments in players like Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. They’re now on their fourth manager since the start of 2018.
Meanwhile, the Rangers missed an opportunity to take advantage of the Astros’ fade, with the Mariners having passed them and the A’s very much on the come-up. Texas has reshuffled this season, saying goodbye to Semien and bringing in MacKenzie Gore, Brandon Nimmo and a bunch of bullpen arms. But if they have another year of diminishing returns, they’re really going to have to wonder whether this plan, outside that glorious October in 2023, is ever going to fully pay off.
NL East: Braves
Speaking of teams with a recent October run that has masked some rather disappointing seasons, the Braves have been living off that World Series win in 2021 quite a bit, no? OK, fine, they won 100-plus games in the two seasons after that, but they lost immediately in the playoffs each time; they have in fact not won a playoff series since that World Series. Two years ago, you could blame their down season on injuries, and you could, if you wanted to, try to do the same last year, the first year they’ve missed the playoffs since 2017.
But eventually, all these players that the Braves wrapped up with long-term contracts over the past half-decade — to universal acclaim throughout the sport — probably need to have the season that’s expected of them, without any excuses. This is a tough division, with some highly motivated monsters atop it in the Phillies and the Mets. But the Braves were thought to be perfectly positioned to rule the NL East throughout the rest of this decade. That has not happened. If they fall short this time, behind new manager Walt Weiss, there may be no excuses left.
NL Central: Reds
The Reds made the playoffs last year. You might have forgotten that happened: They weren’t there very long. Reds fans have gotten used to short playoff stints, the rare times that they even get the opportunity to witness them: They’ve now lost eight consecutive playoff games, dating all the way back to that gutting 3-2 series loss to the Giants back in the 2012 NLDS. It’s probably time to break that skid, no?
The Reds have a World Series-winning manager in Terry Francona, a potential breakout superstar ready to explode in Elly De La Cruz, a 49-homer-hitting free agent addition in Eugenio Suárez and a starting rotation that’s better than most outside observers might have noticed. That’s not to mention a division that looks open: The Cubs are the favorites, the Brewers are the defending champs but don’t look as strong as last year, the Pirates might still need offensive firepower to support Paul Skenes and their pitching staff, and the Cardinals are taking a step back to build toward the future.
Isn’t this the time for the Reds to make a move? If not now, when?
NL West: Padres
The Padres have been close. So, so close. They have been chasing the Dodgers for many years, and don’t forget that in 2022, they did in fact catch them, beating them in the NLDS. The problem is that the Padres lost to the Phillies in the NLCS and haven’t gotten that close since … while the Dodgers, well you know what the Dodgers have been doing.
The Padres should be commended for their ambition (and financial commitment) in pursuing their rivals to the north, but now their once-strong farm system has been mostly decimated by trades to fortify the big league roster, which, alas, still doesn’t look nearly as good as that of the Dodgers. (Who have a much better farm system now, too.) Bringing back Michael King is a sign that the Padres aren’t giving up yet, nor should they. But if they don’t catch the Dodgers soon, San Diego might be out of the race for a while.