Baseball’s 2027 schedule features a March 24 opener
- MLB has scheduled the earliest Opening Day in league history, with an Opening Night game on March 24 followed by a full slate on March 25
- Wrigley Field will host the 2027 Home Run Derby and 97th MLB All-Star Game on July 12-13
- The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on December 1, 2026, with a lockout widely anticipated
- An early March start leaves little room for lengthy labor negotiations before regular-season games would be affected
Major League Baseball has unveiled its 2027 regular-season schedule, featuring the earliest Opening Day in the league’s history. While the calendar offers fans an earlier return to baseball than ever before, its implementation depends on a labor agreement that remains far from certain, with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire just months before the season is due to begin.
The 2027 campaign is scheduled to begin with a standalone Opening Night game on March 24, streamed exclusively on Netflix, with the participating teams yet to be announced. Traditional Opening Day follows on March 25, when 14 games are slated to be played across the league. Excluding international openers in previous seasons, the March 24 curtain-raiser marks the earliest domestic start to a Major League Baseball season.
MLB also confirmed several marquee dates for the season. Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Field will host the Home Run Derby on July 12 before staging the 97th MLB All-Star Game the following night. It will be the fourth time Wrigley has hosted baseball’s Midsummer Classic, more than any other active Major League ballpark. The league will again stage Rivalry Weekend immediately after the All-Star break from July 15 to July 18, while the regular season is scheduled to conclude on September 26 with a slate of divisional matchups that could shape the postseason picture.
Despite the ambitious calendar, baseball’s biggest question is not about scheduling but labor relations. The current CBA between MLB owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association expires on December 1, 2026, and industry observers widely expect a lockout if negotiations fail to produce a new agreement before that deadline. The league has released a complete 162-game schedule in advance, but officials acknowledge that the dates remain tentative pending the outcome of collective bargaining.
The compressed timeline adds another layer of pressure to negotiations. By moving Opening Day into late March, MLB has effectively reduced the amount of time available to resolve any work stoppage before regular-season games would have to be postponed or canceled. The league faced a similar scenario in 2022, when a lockout delayed the start of the season until April after negotiations extended into spring. While that dispute was eventually resolved without shortening the 162-game schedule, it required a revised calendar and significant logistical adjustments.
At the center of the expected negotiations are major economic issues, including reports that club owners are expected to push for a salary cap, a proposal the players’ union has consistently opposed. The disagreement threatens to produce another prolonged standoff, potentially jeopardizing the league’s plan to begin its earliest season on record. Until a new labor agreement is reached, the March 24 opener remains more an optimistic target than a guaranteed first pitch.
For now, MLB has laid out an ambitious roadmap that combines historic scheduling milestones with high-profile showcase events. Fans can look forward to an earlier Opening Day, another Netflix-exclusive broadcast, the return of Rivalry Weekend and a celebration of baseball at Wrigley Field. Whether those plans unfold as scheduled, however, will depend less on the on-field product than on the outcome of negotiations between owners and players over the months ahead.
