Spring has officially sprung, which means the 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is underway and is full-steam ahead with fans from all over the world watching, including GCSU students.
From late March to November, 30 teams have a new hope of raising a World Series trophy at the end of the season, but only one team will get to hoist the trophy. Each team will play 162 games throughout the course of the season, and only 12 teams will get the chance to play playoff baseball.
The majority of GCSU’s student body supports the hometown franchise, the Atlanta Braves.
“As a Georgia-native, I am a life-long Braves fan,” said Cade Funderburk, a senior business major. “This team has the lineup to do some damage and make the playoffs, but my worry is the pitching staff. With Strider, Schwellenback and Smith-Shawver starting the season on the IL [injured list], I wonder how far our pitching can take us.”
This 125th MLB season will feature technology and rule changes that the sport has never seen before. The newly introduced Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) is now in place. Hitters, pitchers and catchers are now allowed to challenge the home-plate umpire’s judgment of a ball and a strike.
Teams across the league are seemingly chasing the Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of the previous two World Series Championships. The Dodgers have the highest payroll in the MLB, spending about $413 million dollars on their team this season, according to Spotrac, an online sports financial database.
The Dodgers added household names to their roster this offseason, spending $420 million on outfielder Kyle Tucker and $70 million on closer Edwin Diaz.
“I like our [the Dodgers] chances to repeat this season,” said Chance Phillips, a junior finance major. “Our lineup has the depth from the leadoff hitter to the nine-hole hitter along with our pitching staff. They definitely have what it takes to win another World Series this season.”
One critique many students raised about the MLB going into the 2026 season is the accessibility to the sport itself.
The Atlanta Braves recently reached a new agreement on their media rights before the start of the 2026 season. All Braves games will be streamed on Braves Vision, a new platform created for fans to have access to all 162 games. The price of the streaming service is $99.99.
This comes after the Braves’ previous media rights belonged to Bally Sports Network. In 2025, the company went bankrupt, which triggered the Braves to pivot in a different direction, according to Sports Illustrated, an American sports media brand.
“As a Braves fan, I just want to be able to watch them play on T.V.,” said Aden Pasucal, a senior marketing major. “But when it becomes this complicated, it kind of sucks. You have to
cough up $100 bucks just to have access to them. I miss when I was a kid and they had a deal with cable and you did not have to pay this price just to watch. I know not every Braves fan will pay that which is a crappy situation.”
Baseball has evolved in the past decade. Additions such as the pitch clock, a base-runner on second base for extra innings and now the newly introduced ABS have changed how the game is played.
“As a [Red] Sox fan, I am not happy at all with the product they have put on the field,” said Walker Martin, a senior business major. “Our pitching staff is solid, but our lineup just is not good enough to compete for a World Series. Our cheap ownership has decided not to pay certain players and it is already evident in the lineup’s inability to score runs.”
