A Big Summer Awaits New York Baseball…

It may have been the longest and worst winter we’ve had in the Big City in quite a while. 

Multiple snow storms, frigid nights and a feeling of despair that the doldrums would simply never end. 

Well folks, we’ve made it. 

The weather has at least taken a step in the right direction and the start of the 2026 Baseball season is upon us! 

Boy, am I fired up! 

Look at the odds boards on your sports book of choice, the Yankees and Mets are both favored to win their divisions in 2027. 

Yes, the Dodgers are baseball’s new dynasty and are trying to become the first team since the late 90s Yankees to 3 peat. 

The Dodgers will be a problem, but when you take a peek at the World Series odds, you will see the Yankees 2nd and the Mets 4th. 

The odds don’t always tell the story, but in this case they very much do. 

I expect the Yankees and Mets to have terrific seasons respectively. 

The Yankees brought back basically the exact same team that lost in 4 games to the Blue Jays in the ALDS. 

Some will look at that as a negative, I will not. 

The Yankees played excellent baseball over the final 2.5 months of the season and made significant moves at the deadline that should pay dividends throughout 162 games. 

With the return of ace Gerrit Cole in late May, the Yankees should have one of, if not the best,  starting staff in the sport. 

Assuming the team can keep Aaron Judge on the field consistently, they will be playing in the month of October and that’s where they can rewrite the script of previous Yankees playoff failures. 

On the other side of town, it will be a drastically different Mets roster than the one you saw at the end of the 2025 season. 

The Mets said goodbye to Edwin Diaz, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo. 

However they’ve welcomed a cast of new characters. 

Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco should help with the team’s issues when it comes to situation hitting. 

Luis Robert should be able to anchor center field defensively. 

Most importantly, Freddie Peralta provides much needed stability to a starting rotation that was much maligned by the end of last season. 

The pressure is on Mets GM David Stearns after the wholesale changes to the team, but I think his group will be up to the challenge. 

The star power in baseball is off the charts, and here in the big city we have some of the biggest stars the sport has to offer. 

It’s nice getting to watch Aaron Judge and Juan Soto on a nightly basis. 

Or how about the potential rise to stardom for both Nolan McLean and Cam Schlitter? 

The 2026 baseball season should be a fun one. I’m ready to dig in and enjoy the ride. 

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York every Sunday & Thursday on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets postgame on SNY.