Wednesday, March 25

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Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter getting you up to speed on everything you need to know for tonight’s game, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Thanks for being here.

Happy Opening Night! 

The Yankees and Giants kick off the 2026 regular season tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix. And it’s not just the first game of the year — it’s MLB’s first regular-season game ever with the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System powered by T-Mobile, which will let batters, pitchers and catchers challenge ball and strike calls. 

So … who will make that historic first challenge? It’s one of the biggest questions surrounding ABS on Opening Night. We decided to ask the experts. 

We enlisted the help of MLB.com Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch, Giants beat reporter Maria Guardado, national writer Anthony Castrovince and analysts Mike Petriello and David Adler to draft the five players we think are the most likely to have the first challenge of 2026.

Here’s who we picked. 

1) Trent Grisham, OF, Yankees 

Grisham has one of the best eyes on the Yankees — if not the whole league. He had the third-lowest chase rate in the Majors last season, so he knows the strike zone. And Grisham wasn’t shy about challenging during either of the last two springs. At Spring Training 2026, he challenged five times, making him one of only 12 hitters to do so. Assuming he’s the Yankees’ leadoff hitter on Opening Night, if there’s a borderline pitch, we could see a helmet tap in the game’s first at-bat. 

— Bryan Hoch

2) Patrick Bailey, C, Giants 

A two-time Gold Glove winner, Bailey is known as the best pitch framer in the game and should be able to use his extensive knowledge of the strike zone to win as many challenges as possible for starter Logan Webb and the rest of the Giants’ pitching staff. Bailey won 10 of his 14 challenges during Spring Training (a stellar 71% win rate), ranking third among catchers with +4.6 overturns in his favor compared to what you’d expect from a catcher who received the same pitches.  

— Maria Guardado 

3) Austin Wells, C, Yankees 

Whoever it is, this will be the most anticipated “Challenge” on Netflix since “Squid Game.” I’m all about taking a catcher here, and Maria already grabbed Patrick Bailey, for good reason. So I’ll take Wells. He’ll be working with starter Max Fried, who is known to fill the zone and work the corners and should offer the opportunity for some close calls. 

Wells was away with the Dominican Republic team for the World Baseball Classic, so he didn’t have as many challenge opportunities (nine total) in Spring Training. Actually, he was a bit overeager to use them in his first game with the ABS system early in camp, when he unsuccessfully challenged two pitches. But at least we know he’s not afraid to tap in! 

— Anthony Castrovince 

4) Aaron Judge, OF, Yankees

It’s definitely going to be Bailey, but Maria correctly got there first. Instead, I’ll go with the player who everyone absolutely assumes will benefit the most from ABS: the 6-foot-7 Judge, who regularly sees questionable calls around his knees. (Understandably so, given that his knees are at the belt of most people.) 

Despite some evidence that it’s shorter players who will benefit more than the tall, Judge is the poster boy for testing out the new challenge feature — and as a strategic bonus, he’s both A) guaranteed to bat in the top of the first and B) likely to be given the latitude to actually do this early in the game, as opposed to some other, lesser hitters who might be instructed to wait until the late innings.

— Mike Petriello

5) José Caballero, SS, Yankees 

The Yankees had a few aggressive challengers this spring. Grisham was one. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was another. But the most aggressive challenger was Caballero. He was one of the most aggressive at all of MLB Spring Training. Caballero’s six challenges were the most of any hitter except Willson Contreras, and even among the players who challenged the most times, Caballero stood out for how frequently he pulled the trigger. 

Plus, on Opening Night, he’s facing a battery in Webb (nasty movement) and Bailey (elite pitch framing) that’s as likely as any in the league to induce opposing hitters to challenge. As if Caballero needed any extra help. 

— David Adler  

 

YANKEES. GIANTS. WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Obviously there’s way more to watch for in the Opening Night game than just “who’s going to challenge?” This game has a lot of star power and interesting matchups. 

Here are five storylines to watch for tonight. 

1) A Fried-Webb pitchers’ duel 

This is one of the best Opening Day starting pitching matchups, if not the best, with true ace-caliber pitchers on both sides. 

Webb just led the National League with 224 strikeouts and 207 innings pitched in 2025, his second straight All-Star season for the Giants and fourth straight receiving Cy Young votes. The Yankees are still missing Gerrit Cole, but Fried was great in his first season in New York last year, going 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA and a career-high 189 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings. He was an All-Star and finished fourth for AL Cy Young.

This’ll be Webb’s fifth straight Opening Day start for San Francisco, and Fried’s fourth career Opening Day start (but first for the Yankees). 

2) Aaron Judge on one side, Luis Arraez on the other  

You can’t get two star hitters who are more polar opposites than Judge, the back-to-back reigning AL MVP, and Arraez, who’ll be making his Giants debut tonight. 

Judge is the best power hitter in the game. Arraez is the contact king. Judge is a three-time home run king. Arraez is a three-time batting champion. Judge crushed 53 home runs and led the Majors with an 1.144 OPS in 2025. Arraez led the NL with 181 hits and struck out just 21 times all year, the fewest K’s in a full season since Tony Gwynn in 1998. Judge is our MLB.com experts’ pick to lead the AL in home runs in 2026. Arraez is their pick to lead the NL in batting average. 

(Of course Judge is a massive superstar on a different level than Arraez. It’s just a fun contrast of styles.) 

3) Rafael Devers against his old rival

This will be Devers’ first game against the Yankees since the Red Sox traded him to the Giants last June — immediately following a series against the Bronx Bombers. The three-time All-Star is no stranger to slugging against New York. Devers has more home runs against the Yankees in his career, 31, than against any other team. In fact, he has more home runs against the Yankees than any other active player (Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Manny Machado are next with 22). Can he be a Yankees killer again tonight? 

4) Tony Vitello’s debut 

The Giants’ new skipper will be making his debut as the first college coach to jump straight to MLB managing with no prior experience in pro ball. Vitello, who was the head coach at Tennessee until San Francisco hired him last fall, is trying to get the Giants back to the playoffs for the first time in five years. His first game is against a powerhouse Yankees team that has made the playoffs in eight of the last nine years.

5) The end of one of MLB’s oddest streaks 

The Giants had one of the weirdest streaks in all of baseball. Until now. 

In the 19 seasons since Barry Bonds’ last year in San Francisco in 2007, the Giants had started 19 different Opening Day left fielders. It was tied for the longest streak in a modern era of a team starting a different player at any one position every Opening Day.

But it’s finally about to end. Heliot Ramos will start in left field for San Francisco tonight, which will be his second straight Opening Day in left field. RIP, the streak. 

HOW TO FIND EVERY GAME THIS SEASON

Want to know how to watch your favorite team this season? MLB just introduced a hub of information for every game on the 2026 calendar.

Fans can go to MLB.com/Watch to explore the full regular-season schedule — with game start times, local and national broadcast information and probable pitchers for every matchup.

On top of that, MLB will also put out weekly graphics of nationally televised games throughout the season, including watch information, across its digital platforms and social channels. 

11 K’S FOR SHOHEI … AND FUN WITH TROUT

If you thought Shohei Ohtani was nasty in his first Spring Training start, well, you should see what he just did in the next one. 

Sometimes pitchers take it easy in their last tuneups before the regular season. Shohei? Oh, he just struck out 11 — and had some fun with old friend Mike Trout in the process. 

Ohtani’s 11 K’s against the Angels included two of Trout. But the two former teammates were in good spirits as usual. Ohtani and Trout were all smiles as Trout stepped into the batter’s box against Ohtani … until Shohei put on his serious face to start their showdown.

 

DAILY WALKOFF

Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >> 

 

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