9 MLB storylines to watch for this season ahead of opening day
Major League Baseball’s season officially began last week with the Tokyo Series, where the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series.
The rest of the league begins its season this weekend, and the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers open the slate Thursday at 3:05 p.m. ET.
Before the first pitch for all 30 teams, here are nine storylines to watch heading into the season.
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Can the Dodgers repeat as World Series champions?
No team has repeated as World Series champions since the Yankees did it three years in a row, from 1998-2000.
The Dodgers are well-positioned to become the first team since that Yankees team to win the World Series in consecutive years.
After they dispatched the Yankees in five games in the World Series, the Dodgers added more stars to a roster that was already filled with them.
They signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, star Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki and added relief aces Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to an already stacked pitching staff.
There is no deeper or more talented starting rotation than the Dodgers. The starting rotation for the Dodgers to begin the season:
- Snell
- YoshinobuYamamoto
- Sasaki
- Tyler Glasnow
- Dustin May
That does not include Shohei Ohtani, who is expected to return to the mound around May, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who will join the rotation after he recovers from offseason surgeries on his left foot and knee.
As for the offense, they re-signed outfielder Teoscar Herandez and brought in outfielder Michael Conforto in free agency to provide some more power behind their three MVP winners — Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — at the top of the order.
Betts’ health is one of the few concerns for the Dodgers going into the season. The star is dealing with an illness and has lost 25 pounds. He missed both games in their Tokyo Series sweep but is expected to be in the lineup when they resume their season against the Detroit Tigers Thursday.
Even if the Dodgers are without Betts for some time, they have the depth and star power to survive his absence.
The Dodgers unquestionably have the talent to repeat as World Series champions.
The New York Mets added Juan Soto after a surprise run to the NLCS. Will it push them over the top to make a run?
The Mets lost to the Dodgers in six games in the NLCS last season, then gave the most lucrative contract in professional sports history to the top free agent on the market.
Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract after a career season with the Yankees, which he helped propel to the World Series.
The Mets hope Soto can do the same for them. The star right fielder joins a lineup that features shortstop Francisco Lindor, first baseman Pete Alonso, third baseman Mark Vientos and left fielder Brandon Nimmo atop the order.
The Mets have already been dealth two injuries to their starting lineup. Starting catcher Francisco Alvarez (fractured hamate bone in left hand) will miss six to eight weeks, and second baseman Jeff McNeil sustained a low-grade right oblique strain. McNeil will miss opening day and should return by mid-April.
With McNeil and Alvarez missing time, the burden will fall to Soto and crew to pick up the slack.
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The Mets’ starting rotation also dealt with injuries during spring training.
Free agent acquisition Frankie Montas sustained a high-grade right lat strain and was shut down from throwing for 6–8 weeks in mid-February.
Sean Manaea, who re-signed with the team for three years and $75 million contract, sustained a right oblique strain and is expected to return at some point in April.
With the injuries to Montas and Manaea, the Mets starting rotation entering the season does not look as deep as it did at the beginning of spring training. These are the five starters the Mets are rolling out for their first five games:
- Clay Holmes
- Tylor Megill
- Griffin Canning
- David Peterson
- Kodai Senga
After signing with the Mets in the offseason, Holmes is transitioning back to being a starter after being the Yankees’ closer for three seasons. He will get the opening day nod.
Senga would have likely been the opening day starter, but he pitched in just one regular-season game last year due to injury, and the Mets are being cautious with him entering the season. Last season, Senga dealt with shoulder, triceps and calf injuries.
With a starting rotation hampered by injuries, the Mets are going to rely on the offense and bullpen to get them through the beginning of the season.
The Mets hope the addition of Soto and others is enough to help them overcome early injuries and make another run in October.
The New York Yankees lost Soto in free agency and Gerrit Cole to injury. Can they make it back to the World Series?
After the Yankees lost a heartbreaker in Game 5 of the World Series to the Dodgers, they experienced another big loss when Soto left in free agency.
They pivoted to plan B quickly. They signed Max Fried to the most lucrative contract a left-handed pitcher has ever received (eight-years, $218 million), traded for outfielder Cody Bellinger, signed first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and traded for one of the best closers in baseball, Devin Williams.
In the Yankees’ post-Soto world, they were going to build their 2025 team on the strength of their pitching staff.
Entering spring training, the Yankees had one of the top starting rotations in baseball.
- Gerrit Cole
- Max Fried
- Carlos Rodón
- Luis Gil
- Clarke Schmidt
- Marcus Stroman
Cole is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery after experiencing right elbow discomfort in a spring training start.
Gil, named the American League’s Rookie of the Year last season, is expected to miss three months with a right lat strain.
Schmidt will begin the season on the IL after he dealt with shoulder and back issues during spring training and is not built up enough to start.
With those three not available, the Yankees’ rotation looks a lot different heading into opening day.
- Rodón
- Fried
- Stroman
- Carlos Carrasco
- Will Warren
Schmidt will join the rotation eventually, but what was once a strength for the Yankees is no longer.
The Yankees’ lineup also took a major blow with an injury to designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton, who had an impressive playoff showing, has torn tendons in both elbows and isn’t expected back in the lineup in the short term.
The loss of Stanton is especially crushing because he was relied upon to help offset the loss of Soto, a hitter who was impossible to replace in the first place.
With Soto gone and Stanton injured, the Yankees are going to need Aaron Judge to continue his dominant run after he won his second MVP award in three seasons last year.
In addition to needing an encore from Judge, who hit .322 with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs last season, the Yankees need three young players to take the next step offensively to round out the lineup.
Catcher Austin Wells, shortstop Anthony Volpe and left fielder Jasson Domínguez are going to be leaned on heavily in Stanton’s absence.
Wells had a strong rookie season at the plate but tapered off late, bringing his overall numbers to a .229 batting average with 13 home runs. The 25-year-old catcher has had a strong spring training and will hit leadoff ahead of Judge against right-handed pitchers.
Volpe, in his two-year career, has been a good defender, winning a gold glove in 2023. He’s also a smart baserunner, but his offense has lagged behind. In the playoffs last season, Volpe elevated his game at the plate, hitting .286 with a .407 on-base percentage with a grand slam in the World Series.
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The Yankees hope Volpe’s playoff success will translate over the course of the regular season.
Domínguez will replace Alex Verdugo in left field. Verdugo was a solid defender last season but struggled at the plate with a .291 on-base percentage.
Domínguez, a switch hitter, has long tantalized fans with his potential since he signed with the Yankees as a top prospect at 16 years old.
Now 22, he will be given the opportunity to hold down the left field job in the majors after excelling in the minor leagues.
The Yankees’ bullpen has long been a strength of the team and should continue to be this year. Williams and last season’s revelation, Luke Weaver, form one of the strongest duos in baseball in the back of the bullpen.
For the Yankees to get back to the World Series, they are going to need key contributions from players who haven’t yet done so in their major league careers in a competitive AL East.
The Boston Red Sox traded for Garrett Crochet and signed Alex Bregman. Is it enough to snap their playoff drought?
The Red Sox advanced to the ALCS in 2021, where they fell to the Houston Astros in six games. They have not made the postseason since.
Last season, the Red Sox were 81-81 and finished third in the American East behind the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles.
In the midst of a three-year playoff drought, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow took a couple of big swings this offseason. He traded for Crochet to give the Red Sox a true No. 1 pitcher and signed Bregman to a three-year deal to add some thump and a veteran presence to a young lineup.
They were ninth in baseball in runs scored and sixth in team batting average, hitting .252 last season. Pitching was their downfall. Their team ERA of 4.04 was 17th in baseball last season.
With the addition of Crochet, along with former Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, the Red Sox hope they can steady the rotation enough to get back to the playoffs.
However, their starting rotation, like the Yankees’ and Mets’, took some hits in spring training. Brayan Bello (shoulder), Lucas Giolito (hamstring), and Kutter Crawford (knee) will all start the season on the injured list.
Bello and Giolito are expected to return in April, but Crawford’s potential return is unknown.
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With those three out, their starting five to begin the season will be:
- Crochet
- Tanner Houck
- Buehler
- Richard Fitts
- Sean Newcomb
Offensively, the Red Sox are returning most of the lineup that had a lot of success last year.
Left fielder Jarren Duran, third baseman Rafael Devers, first baseman Triston Casas, catcher Connor Wong, right fielder Wilyer Abreu, and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela will be back in the fold.
Shortstop Trevor Story will be healthy on opening day and should provide a boost to the lineup. Health has been an issue in his Red Sox career. Story played in only 26 games last season and 163 in his three seasons with the team.
Bregman will slot in as the third baseman, which will shift Devers to the designated hitter role, which improves the team defensively.
Playing second baseman for the Red Sox this season is top prospect Kristian Campbell. Campbell is one of three top prospects the Red Sox have that could see time this year. Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer are the others.
For the Red Sox to snap their playoff drought and push the Yankees and Orioles atop the AL East, they need those young players to continue to build off last season with the veteran additions to make an immediate impact.
What does Paul Skenes have in store for year two?
Skenes had one of the most dominant seasons by a rookie pitcher in MLB history last season for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 22-year-old went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA last season, while striking out an astounding 170 batters in 133 innings. Skenes’ dominance earned him the start for the National League in the All-Star game last season.
Despite only pitching in 23 games, Skenes finished third on the NL Cy Young ballot and even received MVP votes.
Skenes’ sparkling 1.96 ERA was the lowest among rookie pitchers who had made at least 20 starts since 1920.
While he fell short of the NL Cy Young last season, his campaign for the award begins Thursday at 4:10 p.m. ET when the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the Miami Marlins.
Skenes is the ace of a young rotation that will look to carry the Pirates to the playoffs in a weak NL Central, and baseball fans everywhere will be watching to see what he does this year.
How many bases will Elly De La Cruz steal this season?
After being called up in 2023 by the Cincinnati Reds, De La Cruz stole 35 bases in 98 games. In a full season of action in 2024, the 23-year-old stole 67 bases in 160 games, which led the big leagues.
The closest player to De La Cruz was Ohtani with 59 stolen bases.
In addition to upping his stolen base total over a full season, De La Cruz improved offensively.
In 2023, he hit .235 with 13 RBIs and a .300 on-base percentage. In 2024, he hit .259 with 25 home runs and 76 RBIs with a .339 on-base percentage, but he led the league in strikeouts with 218.
While De La Cruz stole 67 bases and led the league, he also led the league by being caught stealing 16 times.
Should De Le Cruz continue to improve offensively and/or cut down on getting caught stealing, he could surpass 70 steals on the season.
The Reds hope De La Cruz continues to emerge as a superstar as the Reds look to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and make the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013.
Two teams are playing in different stadiums this year. Where are they playing, and why are they moving?
The Oakland Athletics are no longer. They are just the Athletics until they complete their move to Las Vegas.
The Athletics’ new home is at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, for 2025-2027. The Sacramento River Cats, the San Francisco Giants Triple-A affiliate, will also play their games at Sutter Health Park.
After three years in Sacramento, the A’s will move to Las Vegas.
The A’s played their home games at the Coliseum in Oakland since 1968, but the franchise and city didn’t agree to a lease extension, hence their move to Sacramento.
The Tampa Bay Rays will also have a different home field in 2025 but for a different reason.
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Hurricane Milton blew the roof off and destroyed Tropicana Field, the Rays’ home ballpark. With the ballpark destroyed, the Rays are playing their home games in 2025 at their rivals’ spring training home.
The Yankees’ George M. Steinbrenner Field will be the home of the Rays in 2025. The stadium is modeled after Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
It is unknown whether Tropicana Field will be rebuilt or if the Rays are going to build a new stadium to replace Tropicana Field.
The Arizona Diamondbacks added Corbin Burnes this offseason. Is it enough to push them into the playoffs and even unseat the Dodgers?
The Diamondbacks narrowly missed the playoffs last season, a year after making the World Series, and they finished 89-73.
The Atlanta Braves and Mets both had 89-73 records last season, but those teams made the playoffs due to tiebreakers, which kept the Diamondbacks on the outside looking in.
The Diamondbacks started 49-48 last season, before a 40-25 surge to end the season, but they still fell just short of the playoffs.
The team’s offense was not at fault for not making the playoffs.
No team scored more runs in baseball last season than the Diamondbacks. They had the second-highest team batting average (.263), the highest team on-base percentage (.337), and the second-highest team slugging percentage (.440) in the sport.
The team’s pitching was its Achilles heel last season.
The D-Backs’ team ERA was 4.62, which was 27th in baseball. They struck out the 26th fewest hitters (1,313) and yielded the second most hits in baseball (1,468).
Ace Zac Gallen was the only pitcher who started more than 10 games with a sub-4.00 ERA. He had a 3.65 ERA in 28 starts.
This season, Gallen will have a co-ace after the team signed 2021 NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes in the offseason.
Burnes had a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts with the Orioles last season and finished fifth in the American League Cy Young voting. The 30-year-old has made the All-Star team each of the last four years.
With Gallen and Burnes atop the rotation and Merrill Kelly healthy again after missing part of 2024 with a shoulder injury, the Diamondbacks should have a formidable top of the rotation.
With a stronger rotation and with most of the lineup that mashed last season set to return, the Diamondbacks could return to the playoffs and maybe even give the Dodgers a run in the NL West.
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What will the Toronto Blue Jays do with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.?
The Blue Jays and star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. could not come to an agreement on a contract extension before the first baseman’s deadline to sign a deal.
Guerrero, 25, has one year left on his contract before hitting free agency and is in line for a massive payday.
Guerrero is coming off a stellar season, when he hit .323 with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs in 159 games.
While Guerrero had a strong season last year, the Blue Jays did not. They went 74-88 and finished last in the AL East.
If the Blue Jays struggle to start the season, Guerrero’s name will be floated in trade rumors, and he could be the biggest name on the trade market.
Would the Blue Jays trade their superstar for a prospect haul before he departs in free agency?
Or would the team risk keeping him through the trade deadline in a tough season in hopes of signing him in free agency.
What the Blue Jays decide to do with Guerrero could change the balance of power in a pennant race down the stretch.
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