If you're Major League Baseball team has been eliminated from the playoffs or didn't make it to the postseason at all, have no fear: a new baseball season started last night.
Down in Venezuela, the Tiburones de La Guaira knocked off the defending champion Navegantes del Magallanes 10-6 in the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional season opener behind a 2-for-4 night by Yangervis Solarte, who clubbed a two-run homer and drove in four runs.
Tonight, Venezuela's six other teams start the season, and Mexico's Liga Mexicana del Pacifico gets underway with the Jaguares de Nayarit visiting the defending champion Charros de Jalisco.
Below are five storylines to watch over the next four and a half months of the winter ball season.
Could This Be Robinson Cano's Farewell? - Robinson Cano has continued playing since leaving MLB, helping the Diablos Rojos del Mexico to a pair of Serie del Rey titles in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol in the summer and playing for LIDOM's Estrellas Orientales in the winter. He signed with both the Estrellas Orientales and the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico's Tomateros de Culiacan for this winter, and the CBPC ruled that the Tomateros contract would be honored. The Tomateros have since released Cano, meaning he's free to play for the Estrellas again this winter in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris. Don't be surprised if this winter marks the last time fans see Cano on the field as a professional baseball player.
Which Trevor Bauer Will the Estrellas Get? - Trevor Bauer is venturing to winter ball for the first time, playing for Diablos Rojos' teammate Robinson Cano's hometown team, the Estrellas Orientales of LIDOM. His last two seasons outside of MLB have not been as good as his first two. In 2023, he threw 130 2/3 innings for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball with a 2.76 ERA, and in 2024, he won the LMB's pitcher of the year award and a Serie del Rey with the Diablos. He went back to Japan and posted a 4.51 ERA in 133 2/3 innings in 2024. After splitting this year between the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, where he was a solid starter with a 2.36 ERA over 42 innings across seven starts, he went back to Mexico, where he had a 4.41 ERA in 32 2/3 innings and 31 strikeouts. Bauer, 35, is racing the clock now, and also heading to what is arguably the toughest winter league in the world. Will he be dominant again? We'll see. He's expected to make his first start for the Estrellas on Nov. 1.
Will There Be Any Invitees to the Caribbean Series? - There hasn't been a four-team Caribbean Series since 2013, the last time winter ball's biggest event came to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, where it will be this year. Every year since, at least one league outside the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe, the organization governing winter ball in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, has been invited to send a team to the Caribbean Series. But with the Serie de Las Americas now including the champions of Cuba's Serie Nacional, Panama's ProBeis, Colombia's Liga Beisbol Profesional Colombiano, and Nicaragua's Asociation de Beisbol Profesional Nicaraguense, it's hard to see those leagues sending a team to the Caribbean Series. The other notable invitee to the Caribbean Series over the past decade-plus was the Japan Breeze, who came to Mexicali in 2025 and were blown out.