NO SURPRISES, IT'S TIME TO START EMBRACING BASEBALL'S NEWEST ERA

Mario Russo

The year is 2026. Not too far away from the current picture the MLB finds itself submerged in. Justin Verlander and his former Astros teammate Kyle Tucker are steadily testing the free agent market, their sights set on securing the next mammoth deal in baseball’s modern age.

So too are the dynamic duo that has transformed Canada’s lonesome baseball club for the better part of a decade. First baseman Vladamir Gurrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette ready themselves for the biggest payday of their young careers. Shopping the market until another friendly digit emerges from the right side of the ledger.

The world of baseball prepares to look a lot more different than where it sat coming out of the 2022 season - just four years prior to opening day 2026. Shohei Ohtani - one of, if not the most talented player to ever touch a major league field - has already surpassed the 200-game mark with the team he broke signing records with in the winter of 2023. He’s locked up for the long term, joining 2024 free agent Juan Soto at the top of the league’s payroll.

However, that still isn't the most shocking reality of the 2026 MLB season. Not even remotely close.

What remains so startling to so many involves the clubs that have turned their pipelines - and pipe dreams - into a rigorous reality heading into the 2026 season. Teams that spent the early part of the decade perched at the very bottom of the standings are gearing up to surpass the century mark in wins with little to no effort.

California and New York are no longer the baseball metas that once overruled Major League Baseball. In their place lies the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers, with the Miami Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cincinnati Reds not too far behind.

It is the changing of baseball’s oldest guard, one that forever seemed immortal while resting atop a chequebook that time and time again, redefined its limitations. By 2026, success in the major leagues is built rather than bought.

Retooling is no longer a viable excuse for general managers to dangle in front of the fanbase of their respective clubs. Rebuilds are patiently celebrated - encouraged even, to secure the new lethal weapon of the modern age. Longevity in its purest form. Dominance from determination.

Winning with no strings attached. And it’s starting to happen right under our noses.

All it takes is a quick glance at the current MLB standings to fully understand baseball’s newest wave and promising direction. The Diamondbacks and Reds both led their respective divisions by 1.5 games over the last seven days and are confidently in the mix of extending their seasons to mid-late October.

The Marlins and Orioles are trekking through the season with a similar mentality as well. The renaissance of their young talent has paid dividends since the year kicked off in March, and has caught much of their division rivals by surprise - and more often than not, with little to no pushback.

With the success of these teams comes a heavy struggle sitting atop the doorstep of general managers around the league. Traditional buyers and sellers at the deadline may very well switch places, and create one of the most unique trade deadlines in recent memory.

Postseason pushes and postseason pictures will be both closer and more curious than ever before. The game’s newest players will soon similarly become household names to that of Reds walk-on phenom Elly De La Cruz and the consistent bat of Arizona’s Corbin Carroll.

This is the future of professional baseball, and currently, it is the traditional teams of dominance that find themselves struggling to catch up to the curve. When longball legacy ruled the roost just a handful of years ago, it was this season’s biggest ‘surprises’ that found ways to obtain a strong contingent of like-minded and well-rounded players.

Take the Baltimore Orioles as a prime example of a team that chose to patiently throw their rod in the water rather than taking the impulsive route of their American League counterparts - and it started in the heart of the 2019 season.

While teams around the Major Leagues collaborated on setting the single-season home run record, the Orioles continued to sink toward the bottom of the league standings. Yet amidst one of the worst developing seasons in the franchise’s history, the Orioles kicked off the 2019 MLB Draft with a much-needed summer splash and selected college phenom Adley Rutschman behind the dish.

Instead of latching onto the home run trend that was expected to warp professional baseball into a never-seen offensive era, the O’s placed their trust into the rounded game of the reigning collegiate MVP.

Fast forward to Rutschman’s sophomore season and the backstop leads the team in both batting average (.269) and on-base percentage (.380) nearly halfway through the 2023 campaign.

Similarly to Rutschman, Arizona’s shining star in Corbin Carroll was also selected in the first round of the 2019 draft, and has spent his rookie season steadily driving the offensive workload of the Diamondbacks to a division-leading standard.

Both players were selected with the same goal in mind however: to not just be the future, but the trendsetters across Major League Baseball. Their respective growth as five-tool athletes is now the cutting edge of player development, but by 2026, it will be the standard - let alone the golden one - that both teams and players will have to strive towards to be successful.

That’s how dynasties will be formed in the coming years. The quality of a team’s quantity will be the difference between wins and losses far greater than the regular season. The world of baseball is no longer on the cusp of the modern age, it is taking its first steps within it.

Many squads have done their homework well in advance, and are pairing their answers with an influx of wins that can no longer be viewed as a fluke.

This is the new peak of professional baseball. This shouldn't be a surprise.