The 2026 Major League Baseball season will begin on the shores of McCovey Cove.
In a double rarity, the San Francisco Giants will begin the season at home. And their Wednesday, March 25, night opener against the New York Yankees will serve as the start for the entire league, according to the 2026 master schedule released Tuesday.
The Giants and Yankees will play the only game on the schedule on March 25, one day before a “traditional Opening Day” that will feature the other 28 clubs. It will mark just the second time in 17 seasons, and the first time since 2022, that the Giants will open their season at home.
The organization has expressed a long-standing preference to start in road grays, so that they could finish the season at their waterfront ballpark. However, there’s a significant amount of value in hosting the official season opener, especially against a marquee opponent. This will be the second time in four seasons that the Giants and Yankees will open the season with an interleague series, following a 2023 opening-day series at Yankee Stadium.
The first week of the Giants schedule will be a bit unorthodox as a result. They will have a scheduled off day on Thursday, March 26, before they resume their series against Aaron Judge and the Yankees with two more games. Then, the Giants will have a travel day on Sunday, March 29, before beginning a three-game series in San Diego, followed by a potentially challenging seven-game homestand against the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
Unlike this season, the Giants won’t have to wait until June for the first tangle with their archrivals. They will host the Los Angeles Dodgers from April 21-23 and travel to Dodger Stadium for a four-game series from May 11-14. The Giants will travel to Sacramento to play the Athletics from May 15-17 and will host their former Bay Area rivals from June 23-25.
The Giants still get to finish the season at home. They’re scheduled for a six-game homestand against the Minnesota Twins and Dodgers from Sept. 21-27. One other series that stands out: Rafael Devers will return to Fenway Park for an Aug. 21-23 series against the Boston Red Sox.
Every schedule has its imperfections and sources for griping, especially for a team that flies as many miles as the Giants, and 2026 will be no different.
One head-scratcher that stands out: The team will embark on a three-city road trip from April 10-19, which will begin in Baltimore and conclude in neighboring Washington. This would be sensible if the league hadn’t inserted a three-game series at Cincinnati in the middle of the trip.
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)