Giants to host Yankees in 2026 MLB opener on March 25, earliest domestic season start

NEW YORK (AP) — The San Francisco Giants will host the New York Yankees to start Major League Baseball's season on March 25, the earliest opening day other than international games.

MLB said Tuesday the other 28 teams open the following day, with Kansas City at Atlanta, Minnesota at Baltimore, Washington at the Chicago Cubs, Boston at Cincinnati, the Los Angeles Angels at Houston, Arizona at the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado at Miami. the Chicago White Sox at Milwaukee, Pittsburgh at the New York Mets, Texas at Philadelphia, Tampa Bay at St. Louis, Detroit at San Diego, Cleveland at Seattle and the Athletics at Toronto.

San Francisco started the 2023 season at the Yankees. Other than international games, the previous earliest openers were this year on March 27.

Five games are scheduled for March 27 next season and all 30 teams are to play the following day.

The final day of the regular season is scheduled for Sept. 27, the earliest since 2020.

In their second of three seasons playing most home games in West Sacramento, California, the Athletics will host consecutive three-game series at the Triple-A Las Vegas Ballpark against Milwaukee and Colorado from June 8-14. The A's, who played in Oakland from 1968-24, hope to move into a new Las Vegas stadium in 2028.

Plans are not yet finalized for a Phillies-Twins game at Dyersville, Iowa, during Aug. 13-16 and for a two-game Padres-Diamondbacks series at Mexico City on April 25-26. The Field of Dreams, site of the 1989 movie, hosted the Yankees and White Sox in 2021, and the Cubs and Reds the following year before closing for renovations.

A contemplated Yankees-Blue Jays series at London in June likely won't take place because of scheduling issues caused by West Ham being home for its Premier League final match on May 24, delaying when Olympic Stadium would be available for conversion to baseball.

While regular-season games were to be played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in September 2025 and 2026, according to the collective bargaining agreement, none were scheduled for this season and none have been announced for next year.

MLB scheduled a rivalry weekend for May 17-19, featuring Dodgers at Angels, Boston at Atlanta, Cincinnati at Cleveland, San Francisco at Athletics, Yankees at Mets, Milwaukee at Minnesota, Kansas City at St. Louis, San Diego at Seattle, Miami at Tampa Bay, Baltimore at Washington and Cubs at White Sox. Other regional matchups that weekend include Arizona at Colorado, Toronto at Detroit, Texas at Houston and Philadelphia at Pittsburgh.

Matchups are the same as May 16-18 this year, with home teams reversed.

The All-Star Game, announced in 2019 for Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park to mark the 250th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence, will be played July 14.

Off days were built into the schedule to accommodate World Cup matches at stadiums that share parking lots: on June 17 and July 3 at Arlington, Texas; June 20 and July 3 at Kansas City, Missouri; and June 19 and July 1 at Seattle. Because of the off day, the Mariners will host the Red Sox in a doubleheader on June 20.

The Yankees and Mets will play in the Bronx from Sept. 11-13, marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorists attacks. They played at Citi Field to mark the 20th anniversary.

In the fourth straight season of a balanced schedule, a team will play 13 games against each division rival and six or seven against each other club in its league for a total of 62. The remaining 48 games are against interleague opponents, with a single three-game series against each of the 14 other clubs in the opposite league. Teams will be home against the same interleague opponents they hosted in 2023.

The American League used a balanced schedule from 1977-2000 and the National League from 1993-2000.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge runs to first after grounding out to Tampa Bay Rays third base Junior Caminero during the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons in recent days, including for the father of a large donor to his super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a woman whose sentence he commuted during his first term but who ended up back in prison for a different scheme.

Trump commuted the sentence of Adriana Camberos just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That followed her being convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the U.S. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.

In 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case, this one involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, prosecutors said.

The Camberoses were among 13 pardons Trump issued Thursday, along with eight commutations. An additional pardon was announced Friday for Terren Peizer, a resident of Puerto Rico and California who headed the Miami-based health care company Ontrak.

Peizer had been convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison, and fined $5.25 million, for engaging in an insider trading scheme to avoid losses exceeding $12.5 million, according to the Justice Department.

The president has issued a number of clemencies during the first year of his second term, many targeted at criminal cases once touted by federal prosecutors. They’ve come amid a continuing Trump administration effort to erode public integrity guardrails — including the firing of the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

Also pardoned this week was former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who had pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing had been set for later this month.

Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars, something Vázquez’s attorneys opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.

They had noted that Vázquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.

Also involved in the case was banker Julio Herrera Velutini, whose daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $2.5 million to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2024, and gave the group an additional $1 million last summer. The case's third defendant was former FBI agent Mark Rossini, who was also pardoned by the president.

The recent wave of clemencies joins previous Trump pardons of Democratic former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican ex-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.

Trump also pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after a tax fraud conviction and made headlines for threatening to throw a reporter off a Capitol balcony over a question he didn’t like. Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes, also got Trump pardons.

The president also pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in a bribery and conspiracy case. He later expressed regret and frustration for having done so, however, when Cuellar announced he was seeking reelection without switching parties to become a Republican.

President Donald Trump points after arriving at Palm Beach International Airport on Air Force One, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)