2025 Los Angeles Dodgers

2025 Los Angeles Dodgers / Franchise: Los Angeles Dodgers / BR Team Page

Record: , Finished in NL Western Division (2025 NL)

Managed by Dave Roberts

Coaches: Aaron Bates, Josh Bard, Dino Ebel, Bob Geren, Danny Lehmann, Brandon McDaniel, Connor McGuiness, Mark Prior, Robert Van Scoyoc and Chris Woodward

Ballpark: Dodger Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers were entering the season as the reigning World Series champions, and made it clear during the off-season that they would not rest on their laurels. For the second straight year, they signed one of the top pitchers in Nippon Pro Baseball, inking Roki Sasaki to a free agent contract. Contrary to their signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto the previous off-season, this signing did not break the bank as Sasaki, because he was under 25, was considered an international amateur free agent, so both his signing bonus and his salary over the next six years was constrained by limits set by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They also signed P Blake Snell to a five-year contract, this one coming without a discount, as well as relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. They also re-signed OF Teoscar Hernandez, P Clayton Kershaw (although it wasn't clear whether he had anything left in the tank at this point) and IF/OF Kiké Hernandez. The only major subtractions were P Jack Flaherty, who had been a rental player for the stretch drive the previous year but had proved immensely valuable as one of the team's few healthy and experienced starting pitchers during the postseason, P Walker Buehler who had been slowed significantly by injuries over the past few seasons but who had taken a star turn in the World Series, and 2B Gavin Lux, a disappointment with the bat after having been an all-world prospect a few years ago.

The season started with a two-game series played at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19 against the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers had played a number of international series in previous years, but never in Japan. However they were a logical choice given their three Japanese stars in Ohtani (the biggest of them all), Yamamoto and now Suzuki (the Cubs also featured two high-profile Japanese players on their roster). Yamamoto and Suzuki were selected to start the two games, making it Suzuki's major league debut, while Ohtani was continuing to work on the side on returning to the mound at some point during the season. In the meantime, he remained the best designated hitter on the planet and had two hits and two runs in the opening game, a 4-1 Dodgers win. They then hit three homers, including one by Ohtani, to also win the second game, this one by a 6-3 score. They followed that by winning their home opener against the Detroit Tigers on March 27th, 5-4, to become the first defending champions to start a season 3-0 since the 2001 New York Yankees. The two key players who had missed the Tokyo Series, 1B Freddie Freeman and SS Mookie Betts, were both back in the starting line-up for that game.

Further Reading

• Sonja Chen: "Dodgers' star Japanese trio ready for Tokyo Series spotlight", mlb.com, March 14, 2025. [1]
• Sonja Chen: "Ohtani ignites Dodgers, keys winning rally in Tokyo Series opener", mlb.com, March 18, 2025. [2]
• Sonja Chen: "Ohtani rises to occasion, electrifies Tokyo Dome with first homer as LA sweeps", mlb.com, March 19, 2025. [3]
• Michael Clair: "Dodgers, Cubs to stage star-studded showdown in Tokyo to begin 2025 season", mlb.com, July 19, 2024. [4]
• Mike Lupica: "Coming off a title, Dodgers don't know how to sit back and relax", mlb.com, December 29, 2024. [5]

2025 MLB season by team