MLB's earliest-ever start in '19 will allow for three to four more off days for each club during the seasonGETTY IMAGES
MLB will begin the bulk of its '19 season on Thursday, March 28, with all 30 teams scheduled to be in action, marking the earliest domestic start to a season ever. Next year’s regular-season schedule follows a new layout introduced this year with the inclusion of three to four more off days for each club with an eye toward additional player rest and more chances to reschedule rained-out games. The domestic openers will be preceded by a two-game series in Tokyo on March 20-21 featuring the A’s and Mariners. The '19 season also will feature the most special-event games in a single year in league history, as the Japan matchups will joined by games in Omaha to tie into the College World Series, a two-game Red Sox-Yankees series in London and a third trip to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League Classic. Just three games will be played on first day of the ’19 MLB Draft on June 3. The All-Star Game will be July 9 in Cleveland, with the All-Star break itself remaining at four days. The regular season will end Sept. 29. The interleague division pairings in next year’s schedule are AL East-NL West, AL Central-NL East, and AL West-NL Central. Several clubs including the A’s, Rays, Reds and White Sox also gained two-game home weekend series, a more unusual scheduling quirk designed in part to showcase matchups against prime interleague opponents.
FOCUS ON DIVISIONAL GAMES EARLY, LATE: The '19 schedule features a marked concentration of intradivision matchups at the beginning and end of the season to allow for easier reschedulings, which was expected following a historic spate of rainouts early this season. Opening Day includes 10 divisional games among the 15 scheduled, while the regular-season finale will have 12 divisional games. “There was quite a lot we were able to do that we believe will make things flow better and give us more flexibility to deal with issues as they arise,” said MLB Exec VP/Strategy, Technology & Innovation Chris Marinak, who oversaw the schedule. Individual game times and national broadcast schedules will be finalized at later dates. This is the earliest in a current season MLB has released the following year’s schedule. Spring Training schedules that typically are finished in November will instead be unveiled next week.
