The MLB season has officially begun with the first two games of the year taking place in Tokyo this week!

With less than a week now until full Opening Day, we’re ready to get this show on the road with so much excitement on the way.

In case you somehow missed the excellence of it, our Top 100 MLB Prospects for 2025 dropped last week and you read a synopsis of it in last week’s newsletter. If you consider yourself a ball knower, take a few minutes to check out the Top 100.

MLB Headlines and Key Content

We’re gearing up for the season at Just Baseball with a ton planned over the season!

We’ll have a whole preview of Opening Day with comprehensive information on every team around the league next week, but for now, let’s take a look at what we’ve been putting out in recent weeks and stories around the league.

NL East and NL West Preview and Rankings. Rather than preview each team individually, we’re putting together a guide to each division that will rank the teams in addition to breaking down each roster in-depth. We’ll have these detailed previews coming soon for the rest of the divisions!

Top American Position Players. We broke down the top players in the National League for 2025 two weeks ago, but now we shift focus to the American League. While the NL has more of the top teams in the league, the AL is still filled with plenty of talented superstars.

Best Aces and Closers by Division. Beyond position players, we’re putting out rankings of the top starters and top closers within each division. They’re not all done yet, but make sure to check out Justbaseball.com this week for the rest of them.

Spring Training Storylines. Every year fans and media alike tend to overreact a bit to Spring Training even when they promise they won’t do that in February. Well, it’s nearly the end of Spring Training and every fan base has reacted too much to one thing or another at this point.

Just Baseball Trivia of the Week

Our newsletter will have a trivia question every week to test and expand the baseball knowledge of our subscribers! The answer to the weekly trivia question will be at the bottom of the newsletter each week.

Who are the only two pitchers with 100+ saves in the past three seasons?

A) Emmanuel Clase and Raisel Iglesias

B) Josh Hader and Kenley Jansen

C) Josh Hader and Emmanuel Clase

D) Emmanuel Clase and Kenley Jansen

Dodgers and Cubs Battle in Tokyo Series

The MLB season kicked off really early in the morning for those watching in the United States as the Dodgers and Cubs played a two-game series in Tokyo.

Despite having Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman sidelined, the Dodgers picked up right where they left off in the World Series, winning both games convincingly.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga were both impressive in the opener, with Yamamoto allowing one run over five innings pitched, while Imanaga did not allow a hit over four innings pitched. Although Imanaga did not allow a run or a hit, he did walk four, leading to an inflated pinch count that had him out of the game early.

When the game turned over to the bullpens, the Dodgers took a lead and never let go, scoring four unanswered runs while their relievers did not allow a single hit in the 4-1 victory.

Game 2 pitted rookie phenom Roki Sasaki for the Dodgers against Justin Steele for the Cubs. Sasaki walked the tight-rope in his debut but was able to make his way through three innings having allowed only one run.

Steele on the other hand was knocked around, giving up five runs in four innings, with Max Muncy driving in two with a double, a solo homer allowed to Tommy Edman, and a two-run shot off the bat of Kike Hernandez.

Shohei Ohtani gave a nation what they had been waiting for when he hit a solo homer in the fifth inning, giving the Dodgers bullpen a comfortable lead to work with. With the bullpen picking up nine strikeouts across the final six innings of work, the Dodgers eventually cruised to a 6-3 victory and their first sweep of the season.

For the Cubs, this represented a frustrating start to their season, but one they can easily shake off with 160 games left to play. Our own Cubs writer Ryan Herrera broke down some of his key observations from the series here.

Opening Day in Cincinnati

The Just Baseball crew will be at Opening Day between the Reds and Giants in Cincinnati next week!

The Reds are the only team that plays at home every season with their annual Findlay Market Parade becoming a city holiday dating back to 1920 to celebrate the start of the MLB season. We want in on that and you should too if you love baseball.

We’ll be having a fan meetup on Wednesday from 4-6pm before Opening Day at Hit Seekings Sports Cards which we’ll have more details on next week.

Come kick it with us as we kick off the season in the best way possible!

Just Baseball Discord

We launched a Just Baseball community on Discord!

Our Discord channel is the ultimate baseball group chat while also providing exclusive access to Peter’s MLB best bets, Aram’s prospect content, giveaways, and direct connection to the entire Just Baseball staff.

Join the Discord before Opening Day to be entered in a special merch giveaway for our community!

Read all the details about our Discord community here.

Not Gambling Advice

Speaking of the Discord…Peter’s MLB picks are rolling in there!

He started the season in the green by hitting the Under 8.5 Runs in the first game of the season in Tokyo between the Dodgers and the Cubs. He followed it by cashing Roki Sasaki Under 13.5 Outs and Under 4.5 Strikeouts in the second Tokyo game.

Make sure to hop in the Discord while it’s half off for your first month to get MLB plays from Peter all season long!

Trivia Answer: C) Josh Hader and Emmanuel Clase

Since the start of the 2022 season, Emmanuel Clase has 30 more saves than any other pitcher in MLB with 133, compared to Josh Hader’s 103 saves. The next closest is Kenley Jansen with 97 saves.

Just Baseball Merch

Our newest line of merchandise features spring-theme apparel to get you ready for the upcoming MLB season!

We have also restocked on all your favorites including our vintage World Series line, hats, hoodies, City Series line, and much more.

Check out the full collection of Just Baseball swag here!