The Cubs will start their 2027 season at Wrigley Field against the Cleveland Guardians on March 25, giving Chicago the earliest Opening Day in franchise history, excluding international games.
That detail stood out when Major League Baseball dropped the full 2027 schedule this week, and not just because of the date. The release came on a random Thursday with no buildup or announcement, which fit the league’s usual habit of making even big news feel oddly flat.
There is plenty else on the calendar for Cubs fans to circle. The schedule includes an April stretch that runs through the Phillies, Dodgers, Pirates, and Brewers, plus a June doubleheader against the Padres with an off-day set for Wednesday afterward.
Still, the first thing that jumps off the page is the opener, and the obvious question is why the Cubs are seeing the Guardians in March.
The answer comes back to MLB’s balanced schedule, which was introduced in 2023 under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Because every team now plays every other team at least once during the regular season, interleague matchups are more common and the Cubs and Guardians were always going to meet at some point.
But Opening Weekend is supposed to feel bigger than that. It is one of the league’s best chances to grab attention, and the opening series should be built around rivalries and marquee matchups, not something that feels interchangeable with any other series on the calendar.
If MLB was going to line these two clubs up to begin a season, there was also a cleaner opportunity right in front of it. Doing it in 2026, on the 10-year anniversary of their World Series matchup, would have made a lot more sense.
That is the larger frustration here. The league keeps missing chances to turn meaningful dates into real events, and it does not market its own product with the same force the NFL or NBA does. Even now, most fans probably do not remember that the Cubs opened the 2026 season against the Nationals and Angels in March.
So yes, this is not some season-defining problem. But it would be nice if the Cubs came out of the offseason with a heavyweight series waiting for them right away, something like the Cardinals or Brewers. Instead, they get a Guardians matchup that feels a year late - assuming the season gets played at all.
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