Cody Snavely
TOKYO — The time has finally come; winter is no more, spring training is over, and the Los Angeles Dodgers quest to repeat starts now with a two-game series against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan.
Like last year, the Dodgers will start the Major League Baseball regular season overseas. However, while 2024 started in Seoul, South Korea, this year, the season will begin in Tokyo, Japan, the home country of Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, and Game One starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The designated home team, the Chicago Cubs, are looking to rebound after a disappointing 2024 season in which they finished 83-79, third in the mediocre National League Central.
Gone is former 2019 National League Most Valuable Player Award winner Cody Bellinger, and in his place is three-time American League All-Star Kyle Tucker.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell, who signed a record-breaking 5-year, $40 million contract during the 2024 offseason, looks to get the Cubs back to the postseason for the first time since the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
As for the Dodgers, the regular season is just a stopgap for the team’s greater goal, and that is another World Series title. Led by 10-year manager Dave Roberts, he’ll have to balance superstars and MVPs, but it all starts now.
Pitching match-ups
Game One: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Shota Imanaga (LHP) (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Game Two: Roki Sasaki (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Justin Steele (LHP) (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Game Times
Game One: 3:10 PM PT, SNLA, Marquee Sports Network, FOX
Game Two: 3:10 PM PT, SNLA, Marquee Sports Network, FS1
Who’s in & who’s out?
The Chicago Cubs only have two minor injuries on their roster as they prepare for the start of the season in Tokyo, Japan. Second baseman Nico Hoerner will miss the start of the season after recovering from offseason right flexor tendon surgery but will appear in minor league games in Arizona this week.
Right-handed pitcher Javier Assad is the second player not set to play with the Cubs this week. A mild left oblique strain will delay his season opening and place him on the 15-day Injured List.
As for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the most significant injury is the illness of all-star shortstop Mookie Betts, who will not participate in the two-game series this week, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
One name left off the roster is right-handed pitcher Tony Gonsolin, who is set to begin the season on the 15-day Injured List due to a back injury he sustained while lifting. Due to the injury, the Dodgers announced that righty Dustin May would be the team’s fifth starter in the rotation.
May, 27, will stay in Arizona and continue being built up and prepare for his turn in the rotation back in the States.
Another arm the Dodgers have lost this time for the entire season is right-handed pitcher Michael Grove, who underwent successful right shoulder surgery a few weeks back. The injury-plagued Grove all of last season, including October, forcing him off the postseason roster after the National League Division Series.
Some other pitchers that won’t rejoin the team until later in the season are right-handers Evan Phillips (rotator cuff), Michael Kopech (forearm tightness), and Edgardo Henriquez (left metatarsal injury).
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