Spring Training 2026 Dates Announced

 The St. Louis Cardinals, in conjunction with Major League Baseball’s league-wide release, today announced their 2026 Spring Training schedule. The team’s 29-game spring training slate is set to begin on Saturday, February 21 when the Cardinals host the Washington Nationals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

The Cardinals 2026 Spring schedule features 15 home games and 14 road games, including three games as the visiting team against stadium co-tenants Miami Marlins (Feb. 28, March 8 & 14), giving them 18 total games at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

The Cardinals will host six different Grapefruit League opponents in 2026, including home games against the Pittsburgh Pirates (March 1) and Baltimore Orioles (March 9).  The club will also host three games each with the New York Mets, Houston Astros, Nationals and Marlins. The Redbirds will travel to the west coast of Florida to play the Pirates in Bradenton and Orioles in Sarasota on back-to-back days March 5-6.

Additionally, the Cardinals will host an exhibition game against Nicaragua on Wednesday, March 4, at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in preparation for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which will run from March 4-17.

The Cardinals will play at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium on eight of 10 weekend dates (Feb. 21 & 28; March 1, 7, 8, 14, 15 & 21). Additionally, the team’s spring schedule includes a split-squad date featuring home and away games on Monday, March 9.  The club has scheduled off days on Tuesday, March 3 and Monday, March 16.

The Cardinals will break camp on Sunday, March 22, following their game against Houston, four days before opening the 2026 regular season at Busch Stadium on Thursday, March 26 versus the Tampa Bay Rays.

MLB also announced the return of the Spring Breakout showcase for 2026. The event will see all 30 clubs field a team of top prospects to play a seven-inning exhibition game against another club’s top prospects. The Cardinals prospects are scheduled to play the Nationals prospects on Saturday, March 21, at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

The spring slate will mark the 29th year the Cardinals will train at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Florida. The Cardinals will make future announcements regarding 2026 Spring Training game times, ticket availability, broadcast schedule and player report dates at a later time. The complete 2026 Cardinals Spring Training schedule can be viewed below and at cardinals.com.

Press Release from MLB:

Major League Baseball today announced that 2026 Spring Training will officially begin on Friday, February 20^th in Arizona and Florida before a full slate of Cactus and Grapefruit League games are played on Saturday, February 21^st. Friday’s slate features four Cactus League contests (AZ @ COL; SD @ SEA; KC @ TEX; CWS @ CHC), one Grapefruit League game (NYY @ BAL), and two exhibition matchups (Northeastern Univ. @ BOS; Univ. of Minnesota @ MIN).

The 2026 Spring Training schedule includes 28 exhibition games featuring Major League Clubs competing with World Baseball Classic National Teams.  Fourteen games with World Baseball Classic teams will be played across the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues on both Tuesday, March 3^rd and Wednesday, March 4^th prior to the scheduled North American start to the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Friday, March 6^th in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Houston, Texas; and Miami, Florida.

The third annual Spring Breakout will be played from March 19^th-22^nd, showcasing baseball’s future stars as Clubs assemble their top prospects to play in exhibition games against one another. Spring Breakout will begin with five contests on Thursday, March 19^th, headlined by a matchup of top-10 farm systems according to MLB Pipeline as the seventh-ranked Mets prospects host the 10^th-ranked Rays prospects in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Additional top-10 matchups include a pair of contests on Friday, March 20^th as the third-ranked Mariners prospects visit the fourth-ranked Brewers prospects in Phoenix, Arizona, and the sixth-ranked Tigers prospects visit the ninth-ranked Pirates prospects in Bradenton, Florida. Top-ranked prospect Konnor Griffin of the Pirates and number two overall prospect Kevin McGonigle of the Tigers could potentially meet in the Pirates-Tigers matchup, while number three overall prospect Leo De Vries of the Athletics and number four overall prospect Jesús Made of the Brewers could meet in the final Spring Breakout contest between the Athletics and Brewers in Mesa, Arizona on Sunday, March 22^nd. A full listing of Spring Breakout games accompanies this press release.

A total of 92 players appeared in the Majors in 2025 after their participation in last March’s Spring Breakout, including 103 players who have been featured on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list this year. In addition, 46 of the 50 players on the 2025 All-Star Futures Game rosters took part in Spring Breakout this year, and 89 players participating in the Arizona Fall League were also featured during Spring Breakout last March.

The Athletics will host the Los Angeles Angels for a pair of games at Las Vegas Ballpark on Saturday, March 7^th and Sunday, March 8^th. The Detroit Tigers will travel to Scottsdale, Arizona to play two games against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Monday, March 23^rd and Tuesday, March 24^th in a crossover matchup between Grapefruit and Cactus League clubs. In another crossover contest, the New York Yankees will visit the Chicago Cubs on March 23^rd-24^th at Sloan Field in Mesa, Arizona.

A number of exhibition games from Sunday, March 22^nd-Tuesday, March 24^th will be played at Major and Minor League ballparks. The scheduled meetings thus far include the three-game Freeway Series between the two-time defending World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium on March 22^nd and at Dodger Stadium on March 23^rd-24^th; a two-game set between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals at Camden Yards on March 23^rd and Nationals Park on March 24^th; the Kansas City Royals visiting the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on March 23^rd-24^th; the Cleveland Guardians visiting the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on March 23^rd-24^th; the Cincinnati Reds visiting the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 23^rd-24^th; the San Francisco Giants visiting the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on March 20^th at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California and hosting the Monterrey Sultanes at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California on March 23^rd-24^th; and the Houston Astros hosting the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys at Daikin Park in Houston, Texas on March 23^rd-24^th. Additional exhibition games at Major and Minor League ballparks are expected to be added in the coming months.

The 2026 regular season will begin with an Opening Night game played on Wednesday, March 25^th as the Giants host the Yankees at Oracle Park. Traditional Opening Day on Thursday, March 26^th will feature 14 games, including six Interleague matchups and two divisional games.

2026 MLB
Spring Breakout
Schedule

*Note: Parentheses indicate current club farm system rankings, per MLB Pipeline

2026 World Baseball Classic
Exhibition Games
Schedule