One Word Describes The First 40 Games Of The 2026 MLB Season – Parity

The 2026 Major League Baseball Season is about 40 games in at this moment in time. Most MLB teams have played around 40 games, some slightly fewer due to rain, sleet, and snow postponements. Forty games is not the end of the road for a team under .500, nor a team with a mostly losing record. There are still about 120 games left to “turn it around.” If you are a fan of an MLB team with a losing record like myself with my Boston Red Sox, do not fret, do not cancel your paid subscriptions, do not hit the panic button and start watching Pickleball on ESPN 8. And here is why…

For the past several years, Major League Baseball has tried to create a more perfect game for fans. Pitch clocks keep the game time under 3 hours for fans with low attention spans. The ABS system corrects home plate umpire mistakes and reverses strikes to balls and balls to strikes based on a rectangle on your TV screen. Players/Infielders cannot shift for a mostly pull hitter because that would mean less offense, which most fans crave when they attend a baseball game. I could go on and on with the new rules and how they have impacted the fan experience. But, subconsciously, maybe all these rules have done something completely different. Maybe they have leveled the playing field for all 30 MLB teams. Maybe the end result of all these changes is something the league never expected or anticipated or even asked for – parity.

As of this morning, May 12, raise your hand if you had the following 6 teams in first place in their respective divisions – Tampa Bay, Cleveland, The Athletics, Atlanta, The Cubs, The Padres. Now raise your hand if you had these 6 teams in last place in their respective divisions – Boston, The Twins, Houston, NY Mets, The Reds, Colorado. A whopping 18 teams in MLB right now are either at .500 or below .500 in terms of winning percentage. YOY (year over year) that is an additional four teams from the same 40 games in 2025. And some of this year’s under .500 club already have new/interim managers after their managers were let go for slow performances (and perhaps other organizational reasons). Not to pile on here but the Astros are 10 games under .500, as are the Mets. Colorado has a better record than the NY Mets and nearly identical to the Red Sox. Are we seeing a trend in MLB that I have been craving for years and years, parity?

Has the talent in Major League Baseball finally spread out over 30 teams? Is the new look Minor League baseball system producing more polished Major League players? Does every team on any given night have a chance to win against any opponent? Will we have a championship series with two small market teams that are built on prospects reaching their potential at the MLB level? Parity allows fanbases in cities like Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Chicago (White Sox) to believe there is a really good shot at postseason baseball in their stadiums come September/October. Parity drives fans to hang in there despite a slow start to the season. Parity reminds players that they are never out of a game, never out of a series, and it keeps them focused rather than distraught. And with these new rules that create opportunities in the field, on the mound, at the plate, you have a situation where every team gets a fair shake and it creates parity. Let me explain.

If your team, currently under .500, is playing the first place team in your division, any small spark can light your way to a winning streak. And an unfortunate call or play or decision can always deflate your team to lower levels of uncomfortable feelings. Let’s say your team is down a few runs, you have 2 runners on base, 2 outs, late in the game, and the count on the batter is 1 ball, 2 strikes. The pitcher sets, fires a pitch that is clearly a ball, yet the umpire calls it a strike, ending our team’s rally. In years passed, batters would probably flip out, managers would storm out of the dugout and flip out, all in frustration not specifically from this strike 3 call, but the entire season bottled up into one incident. Now, in 2026, the batter can simply tap on his helmet, which prompts the home plate umpire to call timeout, and engage the ABS System to verify if it was a strike or ball. ABS confirms it was a ball, the call is reversed. Runners go back to their bases, and on the very next pitch thrown, your team’s batter hits a 3 run home run to give your struggling team a boost. One that propels your team to win that game and the next several, generating enough positive vibes to get your team “turned around.” New rules have given struggling teams much more than a call reversal, they have given your team a renewed sense of positivity.

So, if you are a fan of one of the 18 MLB teams currently sitting at or below .500 for a winning percentage, understand that there is no need for panic. The new look Major League Baseball, with its City Connect uniforms, pitch clocks, ABS, bat flips has one trait in 2026 that bests them all – parity. What fanbase would want to go to see a game, pay hundreds of dollars for his/her family to see a team 88 games under .500? Speculating, but likely 0%. What fanbase would pay good money to see their team, normally in the cellar by June, in a postseason game in October? Not speculating – 100%. Parity levels the playing field when the Rockies play the Cubs, when the Reds play the Yankees, when the Athletics play pretty much any other team. I love it when parity shines brightly in sports, especially baseball. I hope the parity of the 2026 season continues and fans of all 30 MLB teams get the sense that their team is still in it all the way to Game 162. Hoorah for Parity!!!