Here are three things we’ll be following around baseball as the 2025 season gets underway:
1. Opening Day has arrived:
The 2025 MLB regular season technically began in Tokyo earlier this month with a two-game set between the Dodgers and Cubs. Yet, today marks the first game of the season for 26 of the league’s 30 teams. The Yankees and Brewers will kick things off with the first matchup of the day at 2:05 pm CT, and games will continue throughout the afternoon and evening, ending with contests between the Cubs and Diamondbacks and the Athletics and Mariners at 9:10 pm CT. Only the Rays and Rockies will have to wait one more day to get their seasons started, as the Rays have been given some extra time to prepare their new, temporary stadium, George M. Steinbrenner Field.
2. Roster spot for Livan Soto?
Livan Soto does not have a spot on the Orioles’ 40-man roster, nor has he been informed he’s breaking camp. However, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports that the young infielder has a locker in the visiting clubhouse at the Rogers Centre ahead of today’s Opening Day matchup between the Orioles and Blue Jays.
Baltimore acquired Soto from the Reds ahead of the trade deadline last summer. The 24-year-old came with limited big league experience (23 games, 74 PA), but the O’s took advantage of his optionability and defensive versatility to use him as an up-and-down depth piece for the bench. He went 3-for-10 with an .862 OPS in 12 games, taking reps at second base, third base, and shortstop. The Orioles DFA’d Soto in January but invited him to big league camp this spring. Whether or not he makes the Opening Day roster likely depends on the status of fellow utility man Jorge Mateo. Mateo underwent elbow surgery last season and has been slowly building up this spring. It remains unclear if he’ll need to start the year on the IL, but if he does, Soto would presumably take his spot on the active roster. For what it’s worth, Kubatko points out that Mateo does not currently have a locker in Toronto.
3. The Orioles’ final bullpen spot:
Orioles right-hander Bryan Baker finds himself in a similar position to Soto. As Kubatko notes, Baker has not yet been informed if he has made the Opening Day roster, but he too has a locker at the Rogers Centre. Unlike Soto, however, Baker is already on Baltimore’s 40-man and is out of minor league options. In other words, it would be bigger news if Baker didn’t make the Opening Day roster, as the Orioles would have to designate him for assignment. What’s more, Kubatko reports that neither Matt Bowman nor Roansy Contreras, Baker’s biggest competitors for the final bullpen spot, has a locker in Toronto. It certainly seems like the job is his.
The 30-year-old Baker pitched well for Baltimore in his rookie season two years ago, putting up a 3.49 ERA and 3.35 SIERA in 66 games. He followed that up with a solid sophomore campaign (3.60 ERA, 4.14 SIERA in 46 games) but spent most of the final two months of the season at Triple-A after the trade deadline. This past year, he was optioned and recalled five times throughout the campaign. While his 5.01 ERA in 19 games was poor, his underlying numbers (3.48 SIERA, 3.59 xERA) remained solid.
My only complaint about opening day this season is that they don’t have staggered starts. Would have loved to see games beginning at 1 pm ET with a new game starting every 30 minutes or so.
Mlb.tv solves that problem. One can multiview up to four games per display screen. In theory, one can watch all 15 games simultaneously on 4 different screens in the same household with one account. My personal max was six games. I also pay for a VPN service sub so local blackouts aren’t an issue.
That should be a no brainer. MLB is clueless. They think putting emojis in their headlines is growing the game. Make games from 11am to 10pm and start on Tuesday where there isn’t March madness.
Happy Opening Day everyone!
GO CUBS!!!
@Bar
Go jays!
Foot Locker at Roger’s Centre? Or
Is Oprah giving away lockers?
You get a locker, everybody gets a locker!
Happy Opening Day! May your team win today, unless they are playing my team. If that’s the case, the hell with your team.
Yikes, imagine discovering you didn’t make the team when you don’t find a locker with your name on it!
Happy Opening day! (the real one)
As a baby I use to sing a made up song to my daughter to get her to chuckle… I would say quickly…..REDDREDDREDSOX!!! She would laugh and laugh!!! Mrs Brais not so much… don’t misspell words around her!!! It’s not good for her development!!! This year she starts Med school U of Indiana, Nero surgery…. Me?? I put cans on shelf on graveyard shift… as usual wife wrong!!! Didn’t affect either of us !!! Go Red Sox!!! Play Ball!!!!
olmtiant: Congrats on your daughter’s accomplishments, now and in the future. Also, she might be the first one to tell you it’s NEURO, not NERO, unless she’s performing surgery on an ancient Roman Emperor (just kidding!).
Give me your worst baseball jokes on this opening day. I’ll go first, the Miami Marlins
Javier Baez will be a top ten MVP candidate
They award Devers the gold glove FOR not playing 3b…..
Jeimer Candelario will be NL MVP.
Juan Soto turns 33 in may
Jesse Orosco, Julio Franco, and Fausto Carmona are only in their mid 30’s.
So, last year, I made the mistake of making a prediction based on a single season sample size of spring training games. This year, I took the spring training record of the winning and losing world series teams of the past 10 years and determined that the winning team had a spring training W% of 0.566 while the losing team had a spring training W% of 0.523.
This year, Houston had a spring training W% of 0.571, which is the closest to the average winner and Colorado had a 0.531 W% for the world series loser, so my prediction is that Houston will beat Colorado in the 2025 World Series.
Boston, Milwaukee & Philadelphia are also close contenders and will most likely make the playoffs.
Happy Opening Day all. Wishing everyone’s team the best this year.
Opening Day should be a national holiday.
I’m so happy baseball is back (in a time zone that I can actually enjoy it)
I woke up a 4am today to get all my work done from home. It’s lunchtime now as I’m waiting for my doordash lunch/dinner and snacks to arrive. Play ball!
Seen enough of the master Baker. For the love of God, please NO! AKA Home Run Baker!
Go jays baby….(please sign vlad)
Happy New Year, lads!
It wasn’t seasonal depression, it just wasn’t baseball season.
Happy Holiday, everyone!
Interleague on OD?? What? Why?
@chandlerbing
There are no different leagues anymore. It’s just MLB. They just maintain the existing AL/NL to keep the aging fans happy. Ultimately, it should be the two top teams, regardless of league, playing in the world series.
Yeah, this may be sacrilegious but next time they do realignment they should probably split things up geographically. League alignment is arbitrary at this point.
Happy Opening Day!
Happy New Year (Observed).
Perhaps the Soto locker at Rogers Center is for Gregory Soto rather than Livan.