MLB opening weekend takeaways: Rookies, hot starts, ABS, more - ESPN

We're off and running with the first weekend of 2026 Major League Baseball games in the books.

The first few days of the season had plenty: what looks like a star-studded rookie class showing off its talent, opportunities to see how the automated ball-strike system will impact the game, Tony Vitello's MLB managerial debut, a sweep by the reigning back-to-back World Series champions, exciting debuts from Japanese players and more.

What have we learned so far? Here are 10 initial takeaways from the opening weekend.

We'll have all season to dig into what might be a historic group of rookies given the immediate returns we've seen from Chase DeLauter, Kevin McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt, Sal Stewart and Carson Benge. Remember as well that others who debuted last season, including Nolan McLean, Bubba Chandler, Connelly Early, Samuel Basallo, Trey Yesavage, Carter Jensen, Dylan Beavers and Moises Ballesteros, remain rookies. This class looks as if it has star talent and lots of depth.

One of the best highlights from this group was McGonigle's 10-pitch at-bat against the San Diego Padres on Friday. Facing tough southpaw Wandy Peralta in a left-on-left battle with two outs in the eighth and the bases loaded in a tie game, McGonigle fouled off six pitches before finally lining a two-run single into right-center field. After the eighth or ninth pitch, the camera flashed to Detroit Tigers starter Justin Verlander leaning on the dugout railing, a little smile on his face as he watched the young player.

The last great rookie class we had was in 2022, when Julio Rodriguez, Steven Kwan, Adley Rutschman, Michael Harris II and Jeremy Pena each cracked 5.0 WAR, the most rookie position players ever with 5 WAR in one season (in fact, only two