Baseball is back, and it looks very different in a few key ways.
The way the game is being umpired has drastically changed, while other young stars made a big impact in their debut weekends. Elsewhere, though, a lot has remained the same (the Dodgers are still very good).
Here are our takeaways:
1. ABS Takes Over MLB
Deesha Thosar: Through the first slate of games, we’ve seen the debut of the Automatic Balls and Strikes (ABS) challenge system bring improved accuracy to MLB.
CB Bucknor is a 27-year veteran umpire, but his strike zone was exposed half a dozen times in the Reds’ win over the Red Sox on Saturday. Bucknor had eight calls challenged and a whopping six overturned. No ABS challenge was more electric than Cincinnati slugger Eugenio Suarez’s with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. Bucknor called a strike three to end the inning, Suarez challenged, the replay showed the pitch was below the zone, the call was overturned, and the at-bat was kept alive. The home crowd in Cincinnati roared in approval. Fans are loving the robot umps.
According to Baseball Savant’s new ABS Dashboard, so far, catchers have had a larger success rate (61%) than hitters (46%) in getting calls overturned. Overall, 54% of challenged calls have been overturned. Already, we’ve seen that some have a better understanding of the strike zone than others. Royals catcher Salvador Perez, a 15-year veteran, went 3-for-3 in helmet taps in the Braves’ 6-0 win on Friday. The Marlins, meanwhile, went 0-for-3.
Questions persist about when to challenge balls and strikes, particularly if it’s a wasted bullet in non-leverage situations. In the fifth inning of Sunday’s Pirates-Mets game, Pittsburgh’s leadoff hitter, Oneil Cruz, challenged a 1-1 called strike from starter Nolan McLean that was upheld after replay review. With only two challenges permitted per team per game, ABS strategies may need to evolve throughout the season to limit more consequential missed calls late in games.
2. Contenders: Expected vs. Surprises
Thosar: It was bad news for opposing teams that vainly hoped the Dodgers would stumble out of the gate in their quest for the three-peat. Catcher Will Smith, celebrating his 31st birthday, crushed a go-ahead two-run home run on Saturday and lifted the Dodgers to an opening-week three-game sweep over the Diamondbacks.
The previous night, outfielder Kyle Tucker delivered a go-ahead single in the eighth inning for the Dodgers. Los Angeles trailed Arizona multiple times throughout the series, but the pitching staff kept games close enough to let the offense claw back and win every time.
The Yankees, too, performed like everyone expected in a three-game sweep over the Giants. After going 0-for-5 on Opening Day, Aaron Judge bounced back and hit a home run in each of the next two games. New York’s rotation was dominant, with Max Fried and Cam Schlittler combining to throw 11 2/3 scoreless innings to begin the season.
Aaron Judge crushes solo home run, extending Yankees’ lead over Giants
Elsewhere in the American League East, the Blue Jays also swept the Athletics to open the season 3-0. Japanese third baseman Kazuma Okamoto swatted his first major-league home run on Sunday, putting a bow on a successful MLB debut weekend in Toronto.
Alas, not all the heavyweights in the league saw their plans come to fruition. This wasn’t the start to the season the Mariners envisioned after closer Andres Munoz served up a 10th-inning two-run home run to the Guardians’ red-hot rookie, outfielder Chase DeLauter, on Saturday. It wasn’t all on Muñoz, though. Seattle’s offense went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base in that 6-5 loss to Cleveland.
The Phillies, too, have struggled to begin the year. They lost their season-opening series against the Texas Rangers, with a pair of ugly defeats on Saturday and Sunday that elicited boos from the Philly home crowd.
The Phillies’ offense was disappointing, and the defense was sloppy. They were no-hit through 4 2/3 innings in Saturday’s 10-inning loss, only to be no-hit again through five innings in Sunday’s loss. Texas gave the Phillies a handful of chances via free passes to bring runs home, but the offense fell flat. The Phillies are 1-2 to begin the season in a tough NL East, where the Mets and Braves both won their respective matchups.
3. The top prospects went off in their debuts
Rowan Kavner: From 25-year-old Bobby Witt Jr. to 24-year-old Elly De La Cruz to 23-year-old Paul Skenes to 22-year-olds Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio, the game is already loaded with young talent.
But there’s plenty of room for more.
Before this weekend, Boston shortstop Trevor Story was the only player in MLB history to hit four home runs in his first three career regular-season games. Now, add DeLauter to the list.
DeLauter, Cardinals outfielder JJ Wetherholt, Mets outfielder Carson Benge and former NPB star slugger turned White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami all homered in their MLB regular-season debuts this week, and the standout performances from some of the game’s most promising players did not stop there.
Tigers top prospect Kevin McGonigle ripped the first-ever big-league pitch he saw for a two-run double as part of a four-hit day in his MLB debut, joining Billy Bean as the only two players in Detroit history to collect four hits in their first-ever game.
The next night, McGonigle broke a tie game in the eighth inning with a two-run knock to help lift Detroit to a win. Then, on Saturday, Wetherholt walked the Cardinals off with a win while DeLauter launched his fourth home run of the year on an opposite-field shot to stun the Mariners in extras. On Sunday, Murakami added his third home run in his third career game.
Across the league, MLB rookies entered Sunday with a combined OPS over 1.000. Surely, ebbs and flows will come, but it was an auspicious start for some of the game’s top young talents and for teams like the Tigers and Guardians who were counting on a prospect to spark their offense this season.
4. 50th anniversary, 50 strikeouts and a strikingly strong start for Dylan Cease
Kavner: A lot is riding on Dylan Cease being the pitcher the Blue Jays envisioned when they lavished him with their largest free-agent deal in team history, especially with Shane Bieber, Jose Berrios and 2025 breakout star Trey Yesavage beginning the year on the injured list.
Only time will tell the worthiness of the $210 million contract bestowed upon Cease, whose results have fluctuated mightily the last few years (2.20 ERA in 2022, 4.58 ERA in 2023, 3.47 ERA in 2024, 4.55 ERA in 2025), but he passed his first test with flying colors. Cease looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball in his Blue Jays debut on Saturday, striking out 12 batters — the most ever by a pitcher in a Blue Jays debut — while allowing just one run in 5 1/3 innings.
Dylan Cease looked like the ace that Toronto paid for in his Blue Jays debut. (Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
And that was just one example of a promising weekend across the board for Toronto’s shorthanded rotation.
Cease’s performance came a day after right-hander Kevin Gausman struck out 11 Athletics in the Blue Jays’ opener on Friday, making Gausman and Cease the first set of teammates in MLB’s modern era to each record at least 11 strikeouts in a team’s first two games of a season. It didn’t stop there, either, as lefty Eric Lauer followed on Sunday with nine strikeouts as the Blue Jays swept the A’s in Toronto.
By weekend’s end, Toronto’s pitching staff had celebrated the Blue Jays’ 50th anniversary season by striking out 50 batters, setting an MLB record for the first three games of a season.
