Manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers has finally picked who the starting pitcher will be as they open up the season in North America.
Newly-acquired southpaw and two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell will open up the stateside portion of 2025 for L.A.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the Opening Day starter as part of the Tokyo Series while young phenom Roki Sasaki pitched the second game in the Tokyo Dome to officially start the new year, but there was still a question mark as to who would take the mound at Dodger Stadium for the home opener.
The $182 million acquisition for L.A. will be a part of a pitching battle against the Detroit Tigers, as reigning American League Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal will be starting the season for Detroit.
Snell is coming off his inaugural season with the San Francisco Giants that saw an extremely productive showing. His 3.12 ERA in 20 appearances saw 145 strikeouts to just 44 walks with a 2.1 WAR.
The season prior to that, 2023 with another NL West team in the San Diego Padres, Snell earned his second Cy Young award.
The 2023 campaign saw a career-high in starts with 32 and just two-thirds of an inning short of his previous high as he only pitched 180 innings. He hurled his most strikeouts to date with 234 and notched 99 walks for a WHIP of 1.189.
At 32 years old, he is going to be expected to surpass the weighty expectations set for him in the star-studded rotation and trend back toward his Cy Young-worthy starts.
Someone in the clubhouse who can help with that is three-time Cy Young award winner and former NL MVP Clayton Kershaw.
Snell reacted exactly how an elite southpaw would be expected to upon the arrival of his first spring as a member of the Dodgers last month.
“I can’t wait. I was telling Andrew (Friedman) I need my locker next to his,” Snell told AM 570. “He’s just done so many amazing things in his career. So for me to talk to him, pick his brain, learn from all his experience, I’m really excited. To learn from a guy like that is, I mean, you can’t ask for more.”
The learning will continue all season long, but March 27 will be when Snell can show what he has taken away from the future Hall of Famer and kick off the rest of the 2025 regular season.
