Opening day for the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season was held March 18th between the Dodgers and Cubs in Tokyo, Japan. MLB’s 28 other teams opened their 2025 seasons March 27-28th. Here is what transpired during Opening Week.
DODGERS UNDEFEATED!
The defending World Series champions are off to a 5-0 start, having swept the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Series and then dispatched the Detroit Tigers as part of their three-game home-opening series. This is the Dodgers best start since 1981, when they opened with a 6-0 mark. The Dodgers have been dominant in those wins, too. Their plus-14 run differential is the second best in the majors behind the Yankees; six of their 12 batters used this season have an OPS+ of 140 or better; and their staff-wide ERA+ is 157. It’s very scary, since the Dodgers aren’t even at the height of their powers. Mookie Betts is still recovering from an illness that caused him to lose more than 20 pounds (he returned and hit two home runs in one night, including a walk off HR); Yoshinobu Yamamoto is doing amazing on the mound, getting 10K’s in one game; and Shohei Ohtani is still awaiting his return to the rotation. With the way the Dodgers are looking, I can see why this team is considered one of the best, so far.
Shohei Ohtani’s walk-off HR lifts Dodgers to best start ever by a defending World Series champion. The Dodgers are now 8-0.
WILL SHOHEI OHTANI START PITCHING AGAIN?
Shohei Ohtani hasn’t pitched since Aug. 23, 2023, when he played for the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani had Tommy John surgery on Oct. 1, 2018, and is recovering from right elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023. He threw a 26-pitch bullpen session Saturday before the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, another step toward his mound return. Recovering from right elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023, the two-way star threw his second bullpen session since resuming his pitching ramp-up. He paused after his mound session on Feb. 25 to prepare for Opening Day as a hitter, then threw a bullpen on March 29th. When Ohtani is ready to start pitching again, the Dodgers plan to use a six-man rotation. The three-time MVP and four-time All-Star, Ohtani is 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts in 481⅔ innings as a pitcher. Dave Roberts, the Los Angeles Dodgers manager said, “It’s a week, but then there’s also the one in between, where he touches the mound on a Thursday. And I think it’s just more trying to keep him on a similar seven-day program, and what the schedule would look like going out, and build from there.”
YANKEES MAKE FRANCHISE HISTORY!
During their first three games of the season, the Yankees absolutely killed the Brewers, marking the debut of the Torpedo bats. Overall, the team scored 36 runs, and they hit nine home runs in one of the best offensive games in the long history of the franchise. Aaron Judge, the captain of the Yankees, couldn’t have gotten off to a better start to the year. In the 36-run barrage, he hit four home runs to lead the way. The two-time MVP followed up his three-home run game with another bomb in the series finale. After losing Juan Soto in free agency to the Mets, there was some concern about how good the offense of New York could be. If the series against the Brewers was any sign, this is still one of the best lineups in the MLB.
TORPEDO BATS = CHEATING OR NOT?
The Yankees are the talk of the news, after making franchise history (again), but not for the right reasons. The chaos of the weekend was the modified bats being swung by some members of the New York Yankees, including Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe. They noticed that Volpe (among others) was more likely to make contact near the bat’s label rather than on the barrel: they’re likely to generate more impressive contact closer to the knob but, in turn, they’re likely to make less authoritative contact when they connect with the barrel. This is all legal. The bats fit within MLB’s sizing regulations, and it’s hardly the first time teams and players have experimented with bat modifications.