Spring Training is finally over (sort of) and the 2025 season kicks off abroad, much like it did last season. This time, the Dodgers and Cubs open up the season in Japan and start up the 2025 season with a pair of Japanese arms on the mound. If you haven’t heard, the Dodgers won the World Series last season and begin their journey to become the first champs to repeat since the 2000 Yankees completed a three-peat with a 4-1 series win over the Mets.
The Dodgers didn’t rest on their laurels in this offseason, but rather had what was essentially the dream offseason. Losing Walker Buehler stings for mostly sentimental reasons, but they arguably acquired the best free agent starter available (Blake Snell), retained one of the best bats on the market (Teoscar Hernandez), brought in two of the best bullpen arms on the market (Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates) and re-signed two franchise favorites in Clayton Kershaw and Enrique Hernandez. They also won the bidding for tomorrow’s starter Roki Sasaki, one of the most highly-touted international prospects ever. Not bad, Fraudman. You can’t really surpass “winning the World Series”, but the Dodgers did finish with their fewest wins in a non-shortened season since 2018 (only 98, the bums) and now boast arguably the best pitching staff we’ve seen in quite a while. Today is their first real test following a 12-8 Cactus League record. They split two exhibition games in Japan, as they beat the Yomiuri Giants Saturday morning and lost to the Hanshin Tigers Saturday night.
The Cubs also split their two exhibition games, losing to Hanshin and beating Yomiuri. The Cubs finished 10 games behind the Brewers with an 83-79 record last season and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. They made one of the first giant splashes in the offseason, trading Issac Parades, Hayden Wesneski and Cam Smith to Houston for the final year of Kyle Tucker‘s contract. They followed that up by trading old friend Cody Bellinger to the Yankees for Cody Poteet and also added Ryan Brasier in a trade with the Dodgers for a PTBNL. The Tucker trade, combined with the Brewers losing Willy Adames, vaulted the Cubs as the favorites in the NL Central (PECOTA gives them an 81.4 percent chance of winning their division, second highest only behind the Dodgers 91.7 percent chance). Last season the Cubs took four of six from the Dodgers, taking two of three both in Chicago and in LA. These two games in Japan count as home games for the Cubs, who travel to LA April 11-13 and host the Dodgers April 22-23.
3:10 A.M.
Tokyo
DH
Ohtani (L)
LF
Happ (S)
2B
Edman
DH
Suzuki
1B
Freeman (L)
RF
Tucker (L)
RF
T. Hernández
1B
Busch (L)
C
Smith
3B
Shaw
LF
K. Hernández
SS
Swanson
3B
Muncy (L)
CF
Crow-Armstrong (L)
SS
Rojas
C
Amaya
CF
Pages
2B
Berti
P
Yamamoto (R)
P
Imanaga (L)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts the season for the Dodgers following a pretty good rookie season. Yamamoto began his career in the Seoul Series, starting the second game against the Padres in 2024 and getting roughed up. He allowed four hits and five runs and needed 43 pitches to complete his one and only inning of the start. Fortunately, things got better once they returned stateside as Yamamoto posted a 2.53 ERA/2.58 FIP in 17 starts post-Seoul. His season hit a snag during the cursed series against the Royals in July, when he left his start after only two innings with triceps soreness that would cost him about three months (this coming the day before Mookie Betts got hit on the hand and missed nearly two months). Yamamoto returned in September to build up for the postseason, and after a shaky start he was pretty good in October. He got the ball in Game 1 of the NLDS and looked to continue the Dodger starting pitching woes in the playoffs, allowing three runs in the top of the first against the Padres. He got through three innings and the Dodgers managed to come back in that game. Yamamoto also got the ball in Game 5 and was nails, tossing five shutout innings in a 2-0 series-clinching victory. He allowed two runs over 4 1/3 innings in the NLCS against the Mets and took the ball in Game 2 of the World Series, where he pitched into the seventh and only allowed one hit, a solo homer to Juan Soto. Yamamoto shut down the Cubs both times he faced them last season. He only allowed one unearned run over nine innings and allowed six hits and two walks while striking out 16.
While Yamamoto got most of the offseason hype, Shota Imanaga came out of the gate on an incredible run for the Cubs in his rookie season. Imanaga didn’t allow an earned run in six of his first nine starts and posted a 0.84 ERA in that stretch. He had a couple abysmal outings (seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, 10 runs in three innings) but his ERA never got higher than 3.16 despite that. He made 29 starts and went at least six innings in 20 of them, and finished the season with 174 strikeouts and only 28 walks. The Cubs, who barely finished over .500, were 23-6 when Imanaga took the ball and he finished fourth in Rookie of the Year and fifth in Cy Young voting.
Imanaga had eight different pitch types tracked by Savant in 2024, but primarily threw his four-seamer (51.9 percent) and splitter (30.6 percent). He mixed in a sweeper (mostly against lefties, only 7.7 percent of the time overall) and also got tracked throwing a change, curveball, sinker, cutter and slow curve. His splitter was his bread-and-butter pitch, with a 43.1 percent whiff rate and .204 batting average/.283 slugging percentage against (xBA .217 and xSLG .316).
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The Dodgers are missing a big name in the lineup, as Mookie Betts will miss the Japan series with an illness.
Roberts said Betts lost close to 15 pounds during his illness. Betts has felt better the last couple days, but team was worried he could be more susceptible to a soft tissue injury right now –– especially as he transitions back to shortstop
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) March 17, 2025
Miguel Rojas gets the start at short and will also start there tomorrow.
As far as who is playing, the Dodgers announced their 26-man roster for the two games earlier.
The Dodgers officially announced their Opening Day roster. pic.twitter.com/quV65Ecbjx
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) March 18, 2025
Not a ton of surprises. They didn’t need to roster the rest of the starting rotation, so Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Dustin May are all on the exempt list. James Outman made the roster and gives the Dodgers a lefty off the bench. They added a number of players to the 15-day IL, again none of those were surprising. Eduardo Herniquez’s injury is officially being designated as a foot fracture, which is the only really notable thing here.
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For those who have been pining for it for years, you can get SNLA on streaming now.
A lot of you have been asking, and it’s now here. @SportsNetLA can be purchased as a standalone streaming platform, SNLA+.
It’s available starting today, with access through the MLB app and https://t.co/yuIHJ9psph.
SNLA+ is available for direct purchase at $29.99 per month or…
— Matthew Moreno (@Matthew__Moreno) March 17, 2025
In other news, now’s the time to subscribe to Apple TV+.
JUST IN: Apple drops the trailer for the Dodgers and Yankees World Series documentary
#FightForGlory premieres March 28 on @AppleTV
[image or embed]
— MLB (Bot) (@mlbbot.bsky.social) March 17, 2025 at 3:19 AM
First off if you’re not watching Severance, what are you doing? Secondly, this premieres March 28, the night the Dodgers will receive their World Series rings before the second game of the domestic schedule against the Tigers.
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First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 AM (why) and will be shown on Sportsnet LA and FOX (out of market).
/SI202601151081.webp?ssl=1 "Racing Bulls showcase 2026 livery at launch event in Detroit")
