Opening Day storylines, from pitching concerns to lineup battles, take center stage
By Chris Towers Mar 26, 2026 at 10:20 am ET • 4 min read 
Opening Night! … It was kind of underwhelming. Well, not if you're a Yankees fan, as they handled the Giants easily, winning 7-0.
It was an ugly night for Logan Webb, but not an especially dispiriting one. His velocity was down a tick, but not enough to be too concerned. As a groundball, games like this happen sometimes, and he really only had one bad inning, as the Yankees strung together a bunch of hits to drop five runs against him. It was an ugly line, but I don't see any reason to think it's the start of Webb's downfall or anything.
On the other side, Max Fried looked solid. Not incredible, and his velocity was down a tick across the board, too. But he commanded his pitches well, generated weak contact, and looked solid. One start should never change how you view any high-end pitcher, and that certainly holds true in this instance.
There aren't a whole lot of other takeaways possible from this game. The Yankees had a solid game offensively despite Aaron Judge's first four-strikeout game since 2024, while the Giants mustered just three hits. Ben Rice hitting cleanup was worth noting, given the hype around him; Jazz Chisholm hitting sixth was also noteworthy, but he primarily hit fifth last season, so it's not a huge change there. You'd rather he hit higher in the lineup, but the primary draw here is the power/speed combo, and that shouldn't be affected much by the lower lineup spot.
The real fun starts today, of course. There may have been one MLB game on last night, but it's not truly Opening Day until there are more baseball games than you can possibly watch at once. That's today, and to get you ready for it, here's five things to watch out for on Opening Day, followed by the FBT teams' predictions for the 2026 season – including a few fun bold predictions from Frank Stampfl, Scott White, and I:
Let's make sure Garrett Crochet's weird spring was nothing to worry about.
It's probably nothing. It's almost certainly nothing. But it was weird, wasn't it? Crochet struck out just eight hitters in 14.2 innings this spring, and his velocity was kind of all over the place – down about 1 mph on his four-seamer overall, but it bounced around a lot across his starts. Again, it's probably nothing. Crochet has nothing to prove in Spring Training anymore. So let's just get a classic, dominant Crochet start to confirm that it's nothing to worry about.
Can Zac Gallen turn the clock back?
Now, Gallen is someone who has a lot to prove as he heads into a second straight contract year. He struggled to a career-worst 4.83 ERA with the peripherals to match and ultimately had to settle for a one-year contract to return to the Diamondbacks. But he came out this spring throwing about 1 mp harder than he did last season across his arsenal, so hopefully that's a sign that he can enjoy a bounce back. I drafted Gallen late in a few drafts, so this may just be wishful thinking, but it'd be nice to have something positive to take out of an extremely tough landing spot against the Dodgers in the opener.
Who plays for the Astros?
With Jeremy Pena cleared to play, the playing time crunch in the infield is here. We're assuming Carlos Correa will play next to Pena, with Jose Altuve at second and Christian Walker at first base; if Yordan Alvarez starts at DH, as expected, that leaves Isaac Paredes out of the mix. And while they'll surely mix things up on a daily basis, I'd feel better about my Paredes shares if they made a point of getting him into the lineup for the very first game of the season. Ideally, with Alvarez starting his trek to outfield eligibility in the first game.
Where does Kevin McGonigle play?
McGonigle made the Tigers Opening Day roster, but what's not yet clear is where he's going to play, both in the field and in the lineup. It'll be on the left side of the field, but either shortstop or third base could be in play. For our purposes, let's hope he gets a first look at third base, where gaining eligibility could really boost his value – I have him as my No. 16 SS entering the season, but he would be a top-12 option at 3B if he qualified there. He also hit first or second at times this spring in lineups that looked an awful lot like an Opening Day lineup, though I'd be shocked if he actually hit that high to open the season. If he did, well then, we might have all been sleeping on the No. 2 prospect in baseball a little too much this spring.
Who closes for the Brewers?
The Brewers really didn't tip their hand at all this spring, so we have no idea whether it'll be Trevor Megill or Abner Uribe getting the first save. And, of course, we have no idea if whichever one of them gets the first save will necessarily get the second one. My money has been on Megill, who was terrific in the role in 2025 and only lost it because he dealt with an elbow injury in the second half. But he notably didn't get the job back when healthy, and Uribe is an electric arm who served as the closer in the postseason. This one feels like it is truly up in the air from the outside looking in, and given how good the Brewers and the two pitchers in question are, it could be a hugely impactful situation for Fantasy.
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