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In MLB, the five-man rotation has been the standard for more than 50 years. Things have slowly begun to shift in that regard, however. Several teams have experimented with a six-man rotation over the years, and it’s virtually a requirement for the Dodgers thanks to the presence of Shohei Ohtani and his unique needs as a two-way player. It’s become increasingly common for teams aside from the one that employs Ohtani, however. MLB.com’s Mike Petriello wrote prior to the 2025 campaign that starts on five days of rest have become more common than the traditional four days of rest associated with a standard five-man rotation.

Of course, a start can happen on five days of rest for more reasons than the use of a six-man rotation. A team’s off-days, the deployment of bullpen games, and even something like a starter returning from the IL or being promoted from the minors can push a pitcher’s regularly scheduled start back organically without there being a long-term plan to use a six-man rotation. Regardless of how it’s done, extra rest for pitchers can generally only be a good thing.

The vast majority of pitchers perform better and have an easier time pitching deeper into games when they get extra rest. For teams carrying pitchers used to the schedule used in Nippon Professional Baseball, a six-man rotation comes with the added benefit of keeping those players on a schedule they’re familiar with. That extra rest could also help prevent against injury and late-season fatigue, helping teams confident in their chances of making it to October enter the playoffs in tip-top shape.

The main arguments against using a six-man rotation in the past have mainly been about volume. The greater the size of the rotation, the less often your best pitchers are out there. It’s difficult for some teams to find even five quality starters, much less six. Even those that do have six decent starters would have to be willing to cut into their bullpen, due to the 13-pitcher roster limit. Despite the drawbacks, the tide may be turning regardless.

The 2025 campaign saw teams like the Red Sox and Mets enter the season with more starters than they could fit into the rotation on paper, though injuries left those teams to use six-man rotations only sparingly throughout the year. They have just as much (if not more) starting depth this year, however, and other teams have begun to follow suit. Looking at the depth charts of certain teams, some would struggle not to use a six-man rotation if everyone is healthy concurrently. The Cubs and Orioles both added more starters to their roster this offseason than will fit into a fully-healthy rotation, while the aforementioned Red Sox have an on-paper starting five that fails to include two consensus top-50 prospects in the sport (Payton Tolle and Connelly Early) plus two starters expected to return from injuries early in the year (Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford).

These aren’t the only teams facing a potential surplus of arms. Even with Shane Bieber set to start the year on the injured list, the Blue Jays will be pushing one of Jose Berrios or Eric Lauer to the bullpen—and that’s before considering longtime top prospect Ricky Tiedemann. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon could push impressive young arms like Will Warren and Luis Gil out of the Yankees’ rotation before the end of the first half if the injury bug doesn’t do so before then. The Mets currently figure to use a six-man rotation even with Tobias Myers in a relief role and Jonah Tong at Triple-A. Even a team like the Astros that struggled to field a healthy rotation at all last year currently has upwards of ten arms in the conversation for starts headed into Opening Day, with reinforcements from the injured list likely at some point.

Of course, it should be remembered that pitching injuries have always been inevitable and have only become increasingly common over the years. Some of these teams will struggle to field even a five-man rotation at one point or another this year, and a few will likely never have enough healthy starting depth that a six-man rotation becomes a realistic possibility for more than a couple of weeks at a time. With so many clubs loaded in pitching depth, however, it becomes easier and easier to see rival front offices looking towards the example of the reigning back-to-back World Series champions and adopting some of their tactics.

If the Dodgers open the season with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki all ready to start games, that group of six will be backed up by an incredibly deep group that also includes Ben Casparius, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt, Justin Wrobleski, Gavin Stone, Landon Knack, and Bobby Miller (not to mention non-roster invitees like Cole Irvin and Nick Frasso). That’s the sort of depth that would make it easy to field a six-man rotation all throughout the year even in spite of injuries, and while no team quite matches that level of depth, teams like those in Boston, Queens, and on the north side of Chicago do come close.

For those clubs, the biggest hangup might end up being the risk of wearing out their bullpens. While the Dodgers have three spots available in their projected bullpen for optionable relievers, the Mets and Cubs both only have two (one of which, in the case of Chicago, belongs to closer Daniel Palencia). Teams with such minimal flexibility in the bullpen can struggle to keep their relief corps fresh throughout the season, and that would surely only get harder with seven spots instead of eight.

How do MLBTR readers think the six-man rotation will fare around the league in 2026? Will we see more teams than just the Dodgers utilize one for most or all of the season? Or will it be more of the same where teams prefer to find other ways to get their starters extra rest, such as occasional spot starts and bullpen games? Have your say in the poll below: