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The NL East could have several strong teams this year. The Phillies appear to be in win-now mode. The Mets have made major changes. The Braves should recover from a down year in 2025. Even the Marlins could make some noise. The Nationals? Well, they are here.
Atlanta Braves
Key departures: Jarred Kelenic, Marcell Ozuna, Pierce Johnson, Nick Allen
Key arrivals: Mauricio Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski, James Karinchak, Martin Perez, Jonah Heim
The Braves had their first losing season since 2017 last year, largely because of massive injuries to their starting rotation. Bryce Elder was the only Braves starter to make more than 23 starts and he had a 5.30 ERA and… well, I think you can see the problem.
Otherwise Atlanta returns pretty much everyone, including re-signing closer Raisel Iglesias. They’ll have a full year of Ronald Acuña Jr., which should help.
At Wrigley Field: Sept. 14-15-16
At Atlanta: May 12-13-14
SB Nation team site: Battery Power
Miami Marlins
Key departures: Valente Bellozo, Joey Wiemer, Eric Wagaman, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers, George Soriano
Key arrivals: Zach Brzycky, Pete Fairbanks, Esteury Ruiz, Owen Caissie, Chris Paddack
The Marlins won 79 games last year. That might not sound too great, but it put them just four games out of the last wild-card spot and they seem improved this year, despite trading Edward Cabrera to the Cubs for Owen Caissie and prospects. Caissie gets a chance to play every day. This, hopefully, is a trade that helps both teams.
The key to Marlins success this year will likely be Sandy Alcántara and whether his first full year back from Tommy John surgery is successful. Overall his numbers don’t look great but over his last 12 starts he posted a 3.13 ERA and 0.991 WHIP, with 18 walks and 69 strikeouts in 77.2 innings. Keep that up and the Marlins could be a wild-card contender.
And they could look very different by the time the Cubs face them, which won’t be until September.
At Wrigley Field: Sept. 22-23-24
At Miami: Sept. 4-5-6
New York Mets
Key departures: Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil, Ryan Helsley, Cedric Mullins, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, Ryne Stanek, Richard Lovelady, Drew Smith, Frankie Montas
Key arrivals: Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr., Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette, Luke Weaver, Jose Rojas, Carl Edwards Jr., Vidal Bruján, Austin Barnes, Craig Kimbrel, Ben Rortvedt
The story of the 2026 Mets is those two lists. The Mets finally admitted that what they had been doing the last couple of years wasn’t working and blew it up. You’ll definitely need a scorecard to ID most of these new Mets.
The thing is, they traded for and signed a lot of guys but… some of them are going to be playing out of position. They expect Jorge Polanco to be their first baseman and he has played exactly zero MLB games there. Bo Bichette’s going to third and… well, same, zero MLB games at third.
Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. It will sure be interesting to watch.
At Wrigley Field: April 17-18-19
At New York: June 22-23-24-25
SB Nation team site: Amazin’ Avenue
Philadelphia Phillies
Key departures: Max Kepler, David Robertson, Jordan Romano, Ranger Suárez, Harrison Bader, Matt Strahm, Nick Castellanos
Key arrivals: Adolis Garcia, Brad Keller, Genesis Cabrera, Chase Shugart, Tim Mayza
The Phillies are running back much the same crew that won 96 games last year and 95 the year before. They’ve made the postseason four straight years, but haven’t gotten back to the World Series since they lost to the Astros there in 2022.
So maybe it’ll work again, but these guys are all getting older and there’s some controversy surrounding some comments ownership made about Bryce Harper.
Kyle Schwarber seems like he can still keep hitting homers for some time, though, and the Phillies rewarded the free agent DH with a five-year deal, so he’ll likely finish his career in Philadelphia. That’s a monument to Jed Hoyer’s worst decision as Cubs POBO.
As you can see here, the Cubs will face the Phillies seven times in an 11-day span in April and then not again until… well, maybe the postseason. That’d be fun.
At Wrigley Field: April 20-21-22-23
At Philadelphia: April 13-14-15
SB Nation team site: The Good Phight
Washington Nationals
Key departures: Zach Brzykcy, Jose A. Ferrer, MacKenzie Gore,
Key arrivals: Harry Ford, Warming Bernabel, Matt Mervis, Joey Wiemer, Gus Varland, Sergio Alcántara, Richard Lovelady, Andre Granillo, Miles Mikolas
I am not sure what the Nats are doing here, but yikes, look at that “arrivals” list. It looks like a random August waiver-wire list. They haven’t had a winning season since their World Series win in 2019.
And they have replaced MacKenzie Gore in their rotation essentially with Miles Mikolas, who I thought was going to retire at the end of 2025. Instead we could see Mikolas at Wrigley Field in the season-opening series.
The only really interesting thing the Nats did was trade for Harry Ford, a former No. 1 pick of the Mariners who was blocked by Cal Raleigh in Seattle. Ford hit .283/.408/.460 with 16 home runs in just 97 games with Triple-A Tacoma last year. He turned 23 last week and will be installed as Washington’s No. 1 catcher. He’s a Rookie of the Year candidate. So the Nats have that, if nothing else, as they are a candidate to lose 100 games this year.
At Wrigley Field: March 26-28-29
At Washington: Aug. 11-12-13
SB Nation team site: Federal Baseball
This series will resume on Monday.