Major League Baseball has scrapped plans to play regular-season games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City next year, commissioner Rob Manfred said at the owners’ meetings this week. The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers will still open the 2025 season with two games in Tokyo. Those will be the only international games on the schedule next year.
“We’re not going to San Juan. We did not have, despite a lot of efforts, an arrangement that made economic sense for us. We’d like to do San Juan and what’s available kind of changes year to year, and I hope it all works out in the future,” Manfred said (via the Associated Press). “… I’m sure we’ll be back (to Mexico City) during the term of this agreement. We had a really, really aggressive international-play undertaking last season. Obviously, we’re opening in Tokyo. Tokyo is really our focus right now for very, very good business reasons.”
The “agreement” Manfred referred to is the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires after the 2026 season. The CBA called for an opening series in Tokyo, a May series in Mexico City, a June series in Paris, and a September series in San Juan this season. The Paris games were canceled last November because MLB was unable to find a promoter. Basically, MLB has determined it won’t make enough money to play these games, so they’ve been canceled.
Earlier this year the Dodgers and San Diego Padres played MLB’s first ever regular-season games in South Korea. The Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros played two games in Mexico City in April, and the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies played two games in London in June. MLB also played games in Mexico City in 2023 and in London in 2019 and 2022. The league played 49 games in San Juan from 2001-18.
For 2026, the CBA calls for games to be played in Mexico City in May, London in June, and San Juan in September. Also, 2026 is a World Baseball Classic year, so the baseball calendar will begin with a 20-team international tournament.
The 2025 MLB schedule was released in July.
