MLB Opening Day 2026 Is 4 Days Away — Can Anyone Stop the Dodgers?

MLB Opening Day 2026 Is 4 Days Away — Can Anyone Stop the Dodgers?

Baseball is back. And one question is dominating every conversation from spring training camps to sports radio shows across America right now: can anyone — anyone at all — stop the Los Angeles Dodgers?

The 2026 MLB season kicks off with a matchup between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants on March 25, followed by 11 Opening Day games the next day. (WWE) America's favorite pastime returns in four days, and this year's season might be the most anticipated in a generation.

A Historic First Pitch

The first pitch of the 2026 MLB season will come at Oracle Park, where the Giants and Yankees are set to face off on MLB Opening Night on Wednesday — and it will be exclusively streamed on Netflix, marking the first time a live MLB game will be carried by the streaming giant. (Syndicated News)

That's right. The first baseball game of 2026 won't be on ESPN or Fox. It'll be on Netflix. Times are changing — and baseball is changing with them.

Most teams will begin their season on Thursday March 26, with the remaining six teams getting underway on Friday March 27. (U.S. News & World Report) Thirty of the best pitchers in the world will take the mound over those three days, and the race for the World Series begins the moment the first pitch crosses home plate.

Paul Skenes: The Ace Everyone Is Watching

Paul Skenes returned from the World Baseball Classic and was immediately informed by Pirates manager Don Kelly that yes — he will start on Opening Day. (Fox News) Pretty much everyone expected it, but it still felt like a statement.

The big right-hander goes into his age-24 campaign with a jaw-dropping ERA of 1.96 through the first 55 starts of his MLB career, backed up with an FIP of 2.40. (CNBC) He is already being discussed in the same breath as the greatest young arms in baseball history. At 24 years old, with those numbers, the conversation is completely justified.

The Dodgers: A Team in a Tier of Their Own

Here's the uncomfortable truth for every other team in baseball: the Los Angeles Dodgers are not just the favorites this year — they are in a category entirely by themselves.

Coming off a second consecutive World Series victory — a seven-game thriller over the Toronto Blue Jays — the Dodgers are once again the betting favorites, with the shortest World Series odds of any MLB team in more than 20 years. (U.S. News & World Report)

Their lineup features MVPs Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, and they strengthened it further by signing All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker to a $240 million deal and adding elite closer Edwin Díaz. With a payroll exceeding $400 million, oddsmakers currently place their championship probability at more than double that of their closest competitors. (TRADING ECONOMICS)

Between Ohtani, Betts, and Tucker, the Dodgers should have three of the 12 most valuable players in MLB in 2026 — and that doesn't even account for the rest of the supporting cast. (NPR)

One bold analyst didn't hold back his prediction. MLB Network host Greg Amsinger declared: "The Dodgers are going to be the greatest regular season team we've ever seen. They're going to win 118 games. I think Shohei Ohtani is the MVP and the Cy Young." (Al Jazeera) The current MLB single-season wins record stands at 116. If Amsinger is right, history gets rewritten this October.

Shohei Ohtani: Chasing Immortality

No conversation about the 2026 season is complete without talking about the most extraordinary player the sport has ever seen.

Last season, Ohtani hit .282 with 55 home runs, 102 RBIs, and 146 runs — which led the league — while also making 14 regular-season starts with a 2.87 ERA as the Dodgers eased him back into pitching. (CNBC)

This season, with a full two-way workload, analysts believe Ohtani could hit 60 home runs — a benchmark only Aaron Judge and a handful of the sport's all-time greats have cleared. (Al Jazeera) If he does it while also posting elite numbers on the mound, the debate about the greatest baseball player of all time ends permanently.

Who Can Challenge Los Angeles?

The New York Yankees sit at 10-1 odds, followed by the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays at 13-1, and the New York Mets at 14-1. (U.S. News & World Report) But the gap between the Dodgers and everyone else is enormous.

The Tigers are a sleeper worth watching — Tarik Skubal is a playoff monster and perennial AL Cy Young candidate, and Detroit now has Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander in the rotation. (MPR News) If any underdog is going to shock the world in 2026, Detroit might be the team to do it.

The Bottom Line

Four days from now, baseball comes back. And with it comes the question that will define the next seven months: can the Los Angeles Dodgers do what no team has done since the 2000 New York Yankees — win three World Series titles in a row?

The odds say yes. The roster says yes. Shohei Ohtani says yes every time he steps into the batter's box.

But that's why they play the games.

Stay locked in with PopScope USA for Opening Day coverage, daily MLB updates, and the biggest stories of the 2026 season.

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