Liga Mexicana del Pacífico 2026/27 (M)

It was born in 1945 under another name, Liga de la Costa del Pacífico, and with geographic logic rather than sporting logic: northwestern Mexico had baseball and heat, and summer was already taken by the country's central summer league. Playing in winter was not an idea, it was the only window available. Today the league is based in Guadalajara and its clubs are spread across Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Nayarit.

The north owns the honours list. Naranjeros de Hermosillo have 17 titles, Tomateros de Culiacán 13 and Venados de Mazatlán 9: three cities, almost forty championships in a league now in its ninth decade. Sonora and Sinaloa shared the league for so long that the arrival of Guadalajara — the biggest city and the last of the four to join — shifted the balance more than any signing could.

And there is a difference from almost any league its size: the champion is not finished when it wins. It goes to the Caribbean Series to face the champions of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, so the title in January is also a ticket.

Charros de Jalisco won the 2025/26 title, and they won it against Tomateros de Culiacán — exactly the same pairing as the year before. The difference was the margin: January 2025 needed six games, January 2026 needed four.

The series opened in Culiacán with two road wins, 6-2 and 10-6, leaving Tomateros needing three straight away from home. They won none: on 25 January a doubleheader was played in Guadalajara and Charros closed it out 8-0 and 8-6 on the same day. Four games, four wins.

And the best team of the regular season was neither of them. Jaguares de Nayarit finished top of the table and never reached the final, which in this league is no anomaly: with eight of ten clubs in the playoffs, finishing high buys home advantage and not much else. Charros had finished below them and won anyway, just as they had the year before.

The season opens on 14 October 2026 with 340 regular-season games, 68 per club, running through to January. Charros de Jalisco defend for a second straight year — something this league has not seen in a while — which makes them the team to beat without ever having been the one that wins most in the regular season.

Across from them, two different stories. Tomateros de Culiacán arrive with the debt of two straight finals lost to the same opponent, and with 13 titles that say they do not usually wait this long. Naranjeros de Hermosillo, the most decorated with 17, have spent years watching the trophy stay in Sinaloa and Jalisco. And Jaguares de Nayarit, the youngest of the ten, have already shown they can lead for six months: what they lack is January.

The rest — Águilas de Mexicali, Algodoneros de Guasave, Cañeros de Los Mochis, Mayos de Navojoa, Venados de Mazatlán and Yaquis de Obregón — play the same championship by a different measure: in a league where eight of ten go through, missing out is the real punishment.

The regular season is 68 games per club, but it is not counted as one continuous table. It is split into TWO HALVES scored separately: finishing first in a half is worth ten points, finishing last three and a half, and the standings that feed the playoffs are the sum of the two stretches. It is a system designed so that a bad start does not end the season in November.

Eight of the ten clubs go through, a high proportion even for winter baseball and the reason the league is really played in January. Finishing high earns home advantage; nothing more. The last two Januaries have made that plain: the regular-season leader did not reach the 2025/26 final, and the champion in both editions had finished below the top.

The title is decided in a best-of-seven final, and whoever wins it keeps playing. The LMP champion represents Mexico at the Caribbean Series against the champions of the other winter leagues, so the last game of January does not close the season: it opens the following week.