MLB 2026 bold predictions: Skenes takes Pirates to playoffs while ABS bums us out

First things first: The extremes aren’t so very extreme in Major League Baseball this year. These aren’t the dark days of the 2010s, when teams were blatantly trying to lose, making for some easy 100-loss seasons and an equal amount of moderately decent teams stacking wins like folded laundry. In 2026, there’s probably no more than five teams who can be confidently counted out of postseason contention.

And that makes the annual exercise of bold predictions a little trickier. Yet even if there’s legitimate hopes in almost every precinct, we can still take some stabs at eye-opening feats and surprise outcomes. With that, a venture out onto the limb for 2026: The Mets – not the Dodgers – are the real super team Owner Steve Cohen, who still spends like no other individual in ownership, has gotten a free ride out of this whole Dodgers-ruining-baseball narrative.

Credit to his players, we suppose, for not winning the past two World Series. Yet after a highly-disappointing 83-win, no-playoffs season, the Mets are stacked, hungry and primed for a huge season. Maybe it’s just a 2026-only alignment, but there is no more dynamic 1-2-3 in the game than Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette.

Freddy Peralta gives them a real No. 1 in the rotation. Clay Holmes is fully stretched out.