Heading into the 2026 season, the Blue Jays have a peculiar start to their schedule.

The relieving part of Toronto’s first month is that the strength of schedule isn’t as strong compared to last season, as the team hosts a few rebuilding and retooling teams. But the Blue Jays are still slated to face some tough rivals from the jump, which could serve as a good litmus test for their playoff contention.

Here’s a look at the Blue Jays’ first month and what they can expect:

The Blue Jays start their regular season on a relatively easy schedule this year, which is a stark contrast from the year before. The Rockies’ front office has gone through some major changes this offseason, including hiring Paul DePodesta as the new president of baseball operations, but those moves alone won’t elevate the team’s standing this season. In addition, Colorado still suffers from a lack of good pitching, which has been its Achilles’ heel for decades and is projected to hamstring the team once again.

The White Sox have benefited from the recent youth movement as young players like Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Miguel Vargas continue to perform at a high level. With additions like Luisangel Acuña, Seranthony Dominguez and Munetaka Murakami this offseason, Chicago won’t be as easy an opponent as last season. However, the White Sox aren’t expected to be as strong as some of their division rivals like the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, which puts the team in a relatively weaker opponent category from the Blue Jays’ perspective.

Even though the Rockies and White Sox may not be competitive this season, the Blue Jays shouldn’t underestimate this part of their schedule because bad teams can still win or sweep a series against harder opponents. Last season, Toronto couldn’t take advantage of easier opponents like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Marlins in August. Learning from that experience, the Blue Jays should prepare themselves to win those two series to give themselves more cushion in the future.

There are many opponents in the first month that are pesky enough to give the Blue Jays a hard time. The Athletics and Twins will most likely be out of the playoff race early on, but they are the type of opponents who could deploy their rising young talents to win more games than the previous season. In particular, the Athletics will be tougher this year as they rounded up a high calibre of young players like Lawrence Butler, Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson.

The Twins have tweaked their roster since the last trade deadline and have many players with the potential to raise the floor for team performance. Minnesota now has Mick Abel, Taj Bradley and Eric Wagaman, who could become the difference makers. They also have veterans like Byron Buxton, Pablo López, Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan, who can become mentors and glue in the clubhouse. Minnesota won’t be as competitive this year compared to other AL Central teams, but a combination of good young and veteran talents could make the team more trying for many opponents.

In the fierce NL West, the Diamondbacks are retooling to get back to the playoffs since 2023. The team has made a few big moves, such as adding Corbin Burnes and Nolan Arenado and bringing back Merrill Kelly. On the young talent side, the team has Corbin Carroll, Jordan Lawlar, Ketel Marte, Gabriel Moreno and Gerado Perdomo, who raise the overall offensive performance floor for the team. Should most of the roster perform to their talent level or even overperform, Arizona won’t be an easy team to face at the beginning of the year.

The Cleveland Guardians surged at the very last minute during the 2025 season after experiencing an elongated slump period, proving that the team’s young core is potent enough to rise to the top of the AL Central. Cleveland’s strength lies in its young pitchers like Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee, Joey Cantillo, Cade Smith and Gavin Williams. This sets the team apart from its division and even the league, which is why the Guardians are the toughest customers to face. Cleveland also has an MVP candidate and face of the franchise, Jose Ramirez, who symbolizes the team’s effective contact-heavy approach to its offence.

As last year’s AL Champion, the Blue Jays have to handily win at least two series to secure their place as a viable contender, even against unpredictable teams. Good teams have to win against all kinds of teams; facing the unknown isn’t an exception.

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays have some of their toughest battles in April against top-performing opponents from last season.

The match-up against the Los Angeles Dodgers will be a chance for the Blue Jays to understand their retooled roster. The Dodgers became an even better team this offseason when they added Kyle Tucker on a four-year deal, and the team still has MVP players like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani, which makes the task of winning a series much more difficult.

Last year, the Blue Jays barely escaped a series sweep against the Dodgers during the regular season. They later gave Los Angeles a hard time at the World Series stage, but the regular-season struggles showed the overall strength and depth of the Dodgers’ roster.

The Milwaukee Brewers were also a tough match-up last season as the Blue Jays grappled with the Brewers’ excellent pitching throughout the series. Milwaukee also amassed the most wins out of all 30 teams during the 2025 season, even with a roster of many unknown players. The Brewers have operated on a smaller budget for years but still managed to produce some of the best pitching talent, which has been the team’s main strength. The team may have parted with Tobias Myers and Freddy Peralta, but it will develop other lethal pitchers, who will inevitably become stars. That’s what makes it even more challenging for the Blue Jays to face the NL Central division leader.

The Boston Red Sox may not have been as competitive as the New York Yankees or Blue Jays in the AL East, but they were strong enough to make it to the playoff stage. The Red Sox have significantly restructured their roster as the team added Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Johan Ovideo and Ranger Suárez. The Red Sox didn’t give the Blue Jays an easy time in each series they faced last year, and this year will be even harder from Toronto’s point of view. Boston now has more solid pitching, especially in the starting rotation, and the position player core is headed by younger players like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Ceddanne Rafaela. If the team remains mostly healthy, they become a serious threat to rise to the top of the AL East.

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