Major League Baseball is back, which means we’ve finally switched our brains from season-preview mode to the regular-season routine. The first weekend of games provided an avalanche of action to parse through, introducing exciting new characters and restoring familiar faces to prominence.
With the second week of the 2026 campaign underway, let’s take a look at five standouts from the start of the season and what these first impressions tell us about what to watch moving forward.
Mike Trout, Angels outfielder
While it is unreasonable to expect Mike Trout to fully turn back the clock in his 16th major-league season, the Angels icon is still capable of flashes of greatness that make us all feel a bit younger, and his performance during the Angels’ first series was an encouraging salve in that regard. Enhancing the nostalgia is the fact that Trout is back roaming center field, which he did not do at all last season, as the team limited him to right field and DH, seeking to preserve his health through less wear-and-tear. The Angels succeeded in that Trout played 130 games — his highest total since 2019 — but his dip in performance (a career-low 120 wRC+) suggested that a decline might be in progress even so.
Entering 2026, Trout communicated to the Angels a preference to return to center field, convinced that his move off the position did not contribute to his increased durability last season. The Angels unsurprisingly acquiesced to their face of their franchise, and now Trout is back in center with his 35th birthday approaching in August. More promising is how he’s swinging the bat thus far, with homers in his first two games and a league-leading seven walks to just three strikeouts across his first four. Trout’s underlying raw power metrics have remained elite in recent seasons, even as his availability and overall output have declined, but his strikeout rate ballooned to a career-high 32% last season, so more consistent contact could be the key to him reclaiming a place in the upper-echelon of the OPS leaderboards.
However Trout managed to stay healthy last year, we’ll have to hope he can replicate it, because we’ve seen scorching hot starts from him in the past, only for him to be derailed by injury. Recall that Trout hit 10 homers across his first 25 games in 2024 before a torn meniscus ended his season after one month, so let’s not declare his return to the MVP race until he proves he can stay on the field for a prolonged stretch — no matter what position he’s playing.
If Trout’s production weren’t compelling enough on its own, he has also become a relevant character in the earliest days of the ABS challenge system. Trout is the current league leader in challenges made by a batter, with four, with three coming in the Angels’ series finale against the Astros on Sunday. That included a challenge of a called third strike in the top of the first inning against right-hander Tatsuya Imai in his MLB debut, and Trout’s incorrect judgment on the pitch resulted in an unusual first career strikeout for the Japanese right-hander. Trout’s three other challenges — all on high pitches from reliever Bryan Abreu, one in Saturday’s game and two in Sunday’s — were overturned. His quick trigger in that first inning is a rare instance of an early-game challenge, something that might become less frequent as the season goes on and teams prioritize deploying their challenges in higher-leverage situations.
There’s a human element to this system that is still in its early stages, and it was natural to assume entering the season that players of certain status might be more comfortable challenging than lesser-established players (Ronald Acuna Jr. also issued an unsuccessful challenge in the first inning over the weekend). It’s no surprise that a player of Trout’s status would have the green light — spoken or unspoken — to utilize the system as he sees fit, but it’ll be interesting to see if that leeway sustains over the course of the season, particularly if he proves to be less successful than the average hitter. These are precious opportunities to flip the count in your favor, and if teams want to maximize the system to their advantage, they cannot afford to let their players tap their heads too recklessly, even if they’re future first-ballot Hall of Famers. Consider this a fresh new subplot to monitor for the tail end of Trout’s career.
Chase DeLauter, Guardians outfielder
Had Chase DeLauter settled into the rest of his regular-season debut series in Seattle with a few base hits and a couple of walks, there would be substantial buzz surrounding his introduction to the Guardians lineup after his two-homer showing on Opening Day. But the rookie right fielder cranked up the hype even further with two more home runs against the Mariners, putting him atop the MLB home run leaderboard with four. On Friday, he hit a blast to right field off George Kirby, and the real show-stopper came in the 10th inning Saturday, when DeLauter smoked a 97-mph fastball up and away from esteemed Mariners closer Andres Muñoz to left field for a mind-bending, opposite-field home run that gave the Guardians a late lead en route to their second victory of the season. DeLauter’s homer streak ended Sunday in the season finale, but the statement had been made: This kid is here and ready to do damage.
The degree to which DeLauter alone could elevate the fortunes of a Cleveland offense that was sorely lacking power last season cannot be overstated. No, he will not maintain his 100-home-run pace for long, but the Guardians have been searching for a competent, let alone dynamic, presence in the No. 2 spot in the lineup between All-Stars Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez, and DeLauter offers the ideal blend of power and patience to complement the two mainstays. His hulking physique (and so far comical home run output) is misleading in some respects; DeLauter is not an all-or-nothing power bat but an advanced, all-around hitter capable of a wider genre of offensive production.
Case in point: In his one homerless game, DeLauter’s impact was still felt, as he registered the hardest hit ball for either team when he broke up Seattle’s no-hitter in the seventh inning by scalding a 111.7-mph single to right field. He’s the total package in the batter’s box, and if Cleveland can find a way to keep him in the lineup for even 130 games — DeLauter has played just 138 minor-league games over the past three seasons due to a litany of injuries, so let’s not get greedy — he could dramatically alter the complexion of Cleveland’s offense.
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Eury Perez, Marlins starting pitcher
It’s best to not get carried away with any individual pitching line against the Colorado Rockies — especially on the road — but the Marlins have to be encouraged by the right-hander’s season debut. It’s absurd to think we’re gearing up to watch Perez’s third MLB season — and it really should be his fourth, as he missed an entire campaign due to elbow surgery — but he doesn’t turn 23 for another couple of weeks; such is the nature of a pitching phenom who took the express lane to a big-league rotation. The stuff remains stupendous for the stunningly graceful 6-foot-8 righty, with a four-seam fastball averaging 98.2 mph and topping out against Colorado at 100.4 mph, plus multiple dizzying secondary offerings. But the next step in Perez’s development will be working deeper into games, particularly as he gets further removed from surgery.
It’s one thing to flash spectacular stuff for a handful of innings before making way for the bullpen in the fifth; the key for Perez to fulfill his ace potential will be to eat innings more efficiently and consistently, something his teammate and mentor, Sandy Alcantara, demonstrated brilliantly at his Cy Young peak. From that perspective, the most exciting part about Perez’s performance against Colorado was not his eight strikeouts or 17 whiffs but the fact that he completed seven innings for just the second time in his career and faced a career-high 27 batters — four more than his previous high of 23. This trust from manager Clayton McCullough in Perez’s first outing of the season is a great sign that the training wheels are coming off after his initial return from surgery last summer, and Perez should have every opportunity to recapture the terrific hype that accompanied his rookie season in 2023. Delivering that kind of outing against a team that’s not the Rockies will be important, of course, and Perez won’t have to wait long for that opportunity: His second start is scheduled for this weekend at Yankee Stadium.
Dylan Cease, Blue Jays starting pitcher
That Dylan Cease struck out more batters than any other starting pitcher on opening weekend (12) should not come as much of a shock; the dude has been racking up whiffs for the past half-decade as reliably as any pitcher on the planet. But it’s how Cease went about his business in his first start with the Blue Jays that is worthy of inspection, as this was not the same version of the right-hander that we saw in the years leading up to his gigantic free-agent deal with Toronto.
Cease has famously leaned on his terrific four-seam fastball and slider for more than 80% of his pitches for the bulk of his career, only rarely deviating from those two for the occasional knuckle-curve cameo and the even rare changeup or two-seam fastball. But in his new surroundings — and with his new contract providing a sense of security — it seems Cease might be comfortable expanding his pitch mix further. On Saturday in his Blue Jays debut, the four-seamer and slider accounted for only 64% of Cease’s offerings, with a notably more balanced diet of sinkers, knuckle-curves, changeups and sweepers mixed in en route to his dozen punchouts against the A’s.
As intriguing as the broader array of stuff might be, strike-throwing and efficiency will still be the focus for Cease as he looks to return to the Cy Young conversation after recording a bloated 4.55 ERA in 2025. Cease completed only 5⅓ innings on 90 pitches in his debut, a lower pitch count than he’ll be afforded later in the season but one in line with his career norms, which have seen him struggle to pitch beyond the fifth or sixth inning due to pitch counts. Throwing more strikes will be an obvious first step in Cease’s efforts to improve his efficiency, but it’ll be interesting to see if his deepened repertoire gives him more avenues to induce early-count weak contact, rather than always chasing whiffs with his heater and slider. His top two pitches might always be his bread and butter, but a larger selection of offerings could be the key to Cease becoming not just a strikeout artist but also a no-doubt frontline arm.
Yordan Alvarez, Astros LF/DH
If there was any doubt whether Yordan Alvarez is still one of the most fearsome hitters in the league after his injury-riddled 2025, the Angels wasted no time reminding everyone that Houston’s DH is not someone you want to mess with. Alvarez was limited to 48 games last season, an enormous absence that clearly contributed to the Astros missing the postseason for the first time in a decade, and his return to the Houston lineup was felt immediately.
Just 11 intentional walks were issued league-wide on opening weekend, and three of them were granted to Alvarez (no other batter earned more than one). Alvarez collected only four hits across the four games, but Angels pitchers generally avoided him as much as they could, as evidenced by two more standard bases on balls. And while Alvarez homered only once against the Angels, there’s a good argument that he deserved another on Opening Day, when he pummeled a ball that clanked off the roof in right field at Daikin Park and ricocheted into foul territory, rather than soaring into the seats. Even though it didn’t count in the box score, that strange batted ball was still a refreshing display of Alvarez’s rare left-handed power that Houston so sorely lacked last season, and he made up for the lost long ball with a two-run blast in the third inning Monday against the Red Sox.
Alvarez is one of the best hitters in baseball, full stop. His presence in the heart of Houston’s lineup can override a lot of the questions surrounding him when he’s locked in, though the Angels’ reluctance to let him swing the bat was a reminder that Alvarez is no longer starring in the middle of one of the best lineups in baseball. There are fewer reasons to give Alvarez anything to hit if Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve continue to decline or if recent additions such as Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes fail to provide the protection Alvarez needs to be fully dangerous. However the Astros manage to produce around him, having Alvarez in the mix as a uniquely intimidating character for opposing pitching staffs is a great storyline to have back in 2026 after he was off the radar for so much of last season.
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