MLB will begin its ’17 season with an ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" tripleheader on April 2, continuing a new season-opening format introduced this year. Two of those opening games will be the Yankees-Rays and Giants-D-backs. The third game has not yet been determined, but that selection will likely be influenced by which clubs reach this year’s World Series. The league’s traditional Opening Day will follow the next day. The interleague division pairings in next year’s schedule are AL East-NL Central, AL Central-NL West and AL West-NL East. In addition to that divisional rotation, prime interleague rivals such as Yankees-Mets, Dodgers-Angels, Cubs-White Sox, and Nationals-Orioles will each play a pair of two-game series. Those home-and-home matchups will be played on a Monday through Thursday, and, similar to this year, will be scattered throughout the season. The ’17 schedule will be finalized with game times early next year. The All-Star Game will be July 11 in Miami. The ’17 Draft will be June 12 at a location to be determined. One note to the schedule -- the Rays will play host to a traditional doubleheader at Tropicana Field against the A’s on June 10, the first such doubleheader scheduled in advance in this fashion by a MLB club since the ’11 season.
