Cody Snavely
LOS ANGELES— The Los Angeles Dodgers return home to Dodger Stadium after their two-game series sweep against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan, and kick off a three-game exhibition series against their Freeway rival, the Los Angeles Angels.
Top left-handed pitching prospect Jackson Ferris gets the nod to start the game tonight, with Tyler Glasnow and Dustin May penciled in as the probable for Monday and Tuesday’s game at Angel Stadium.
Two names that were initially scheduled to appear in tonight’s game were 2024 World Series Most Valuable Player Award-winning first baseman Freddie Freeman and all-star shortstop Mookie Betts.
Earlier this afternoon, when the Dodgers announced their lineup, both were penciled in, but Mookie Betts was taken out as a late-game scratch, being replaced by veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas, who bats eighth.
Both players missed both regular season games in Tokyo, Japan, with Betts missing all games, including the two expedition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants.
Betts has been dealing with an illness for the last two weeks, which began shortly before the team left overseas. This illness forced him to miss the two final Cactus League games.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed that Betts had lost 10-15 pounds and felt extremely fatigued during the Dodgers’ workouts. This prompted the Dodgers to make the easy decision to have Betts not only miss the first two games against the Cubs but also send him back home to Los Angeles early.
Freddie Freeman was initially in the starting lineup for Game One of the Tokyo Series but tweaked something in his ribs, a similar injury he suffered last October. Freeman and Roberts did state it was less severe than the previous postseason, but the team wanted to remain cautious.
Freeman is still in the lineup for tonight’s game, batting third behind designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and second baseman Tommy Edman.
During today’s pregame media scrum, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts also confirmed the domestic Opening Day starter and the rotation for the rest of Opening Week.
Newly signed left-handed starter and two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell will kick things off for the Dodgers on Thursday for Game One of their three-game series against the Detroit Tigers against fellow southpaw and 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
After that, Roberts explained that the plan is for Yoshinobu Yamamoto to go to Game Two on Friday and 23-year-old rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki to go on Saturday to close out the first series at home.
This likely also means that righty Tyler Glasnow will make his 2025 regular season debut on Monday in Game One of a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves, with Dustin May going on Tuesday.
This will also set up Roki’s third start and first on the road during the season’s first road trip, which begins in Philadelphia against the rowdy Phillies crowd.
Lastly, while it has not yet been offically confirmed, it is widely speculated that two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani will continue his throwing program now that the team has returned to the United States.
Ohtani began Cactus League action by throwing his first bullpen session in the first week of camp but has yet to be seen on a mound since February 25th.
Ohtani and Roberts argued that Ohtani needed to focus all his energy on preparing as a hitter before the Dodgers’ two-game series in Japan. This was a logical reason for the team’s short stint in Arizona after an already short offseason.
When Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior was asked in early March about the plan for bringing Ohtani back as a pitcher, he suggested that once the team returns to the States after Japan, they’d ramp things back up.
Ohtani will not go on a rehab assignment like every other pitcher returning from Tommy John Surgery, as the team needs his dynamic bat in the lineup.
Instead, after Ohtani returns to the mound and faces live hitters, he’ll likely throw multiple high-intensity simulated games before returning to the Dodgers starting rotation mid-summer.
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