With MLB beginning the 2018 schedule four days earlier than has been the case in previous years, a result of the MLB/MLBPA collective-bargaining agreement adding four more off days into the schedule, that’s pushed spring training back a few days. Why? Because while players, coaches and managers will generally say they don’t need five weeks’ worth of games to get ready for the season, spring games have become a profit center for many teams, notably the Cubs, who have drawn huge crowds to Sloan Park in Mesa since it opened in 2014.
Thus the schedule below, which begins on Friday, February 23, 2018.