It’s that time again! Opening Day of the 2026 season kicks off Thursday for the Washington Nationals.
First pitch is scheduled for 2:20 p.m. ET at Wrigley Field. It’ll be LHP Matthew Boyd starting for Chicago, taking on Nats RHP Cade Cavalli. This is Cavalli’s first time on an Opening Day roster, let alone having the honor of starting on Opening Day.
The Nats finalized their Opening Day roster this afternoon — no surprises, as we previously projected it earlier this week. José Tena has made the team even after the acquisition last weekend of Jorbit Vivas, a fellow left-handed backup infielder. This roster should change quite a bit over the course of the season, and it might even look pretty different in a week or two.
We also now know how the Nats are lining up their rotation for this weekend. After Friday’s scheduled off day, RHP Miles Mikolas has the ball Saturday, followed by RHP Jake Irvin — by now, the Nats’ longest tenured pitcher — on Sunday.
A point I made at the start of spring training: We don’t really have a sense of manager Blake Butera’s tendencies yet, nor those of President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni. We will be finding some things out together.
Remember, every team starts the season with the same record. The Nats have a tough start this year, with the two-time world champion Dodgers coming to town next weekend to kick off the home schedule. A season is a marathon, not a sprint, with 162 games to play. Most prognosticators (OK, all of them) say the Nats won’t be very good this year. But that’s why we play the games — and either way, Toboni, Butera, and the rest of us in the peanut gallery will be closely watching the progression of young players like Cavalli, James Wood, Daylen Lile, Keibert Ruiz, and (starting the year in the minor leagues) Dylan Crews, Harry Ford, and Seaver King.
One more sleep to go!
