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The 2025 Major League Baseball season began a few weeks ago, and while the sample sizes are small, here are a few of my takeaways from what’s been a great beginning to the season.
The National League West is legit
So far the west division has four teams that would be in first place, or tied for first place in other divisions. Anchored by a Los Angeles Dodgers team that is the defending World Series champions, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks have gotten off to the start that they’ve expected to have. The San Francisco Giants have come across a surprising start that might just mirror the 2021 season when the team won 106 games.
The only team that hasn’t impressed audiences has been the Colorado Rockies, who have struggled with a 3-15 record and appear to be on pace to be worse than the Chicago White Sox last season. Getting on base at a clip of less than thirty percent, and having a team earned run average that starts with a 5.2, the Rockies seem poised for a very long season.
The Guardians are a mixed bag
The Cleveland Guardians, coming off an American League Championship Series appearance, have struggled to find consistency, especially against winning teams which they excelled at last year.
They sit at .500, but the record doesn’t tell the full story with the team being a roulette of sorts with how the players perform. The offensive game has been a struggle for some; with six players hitting under the Mendoza line. Defense has arguably been even worse with the team leading the league in errors at one point. The base running has been even more inconsistent with players such as Brayan Rocchio making base running miscues that make even the most casual fan shake their heads.
I haven’t even touched the pitching yet, but the factory that has existed for years seems to be winding down production as of now.
The starting rotation has been more bad than good with Logan Allen putting across the only consistent outings with an ERA under three so far, despite struggling last season. Tanner Bibee, who recently earned a contract extension, has struggled to keep the ball in the ballpark leading all of the Majors with seven round trippers allowed.
Overall, there’s a ton that must be improved as the weather warms up if the team and city wants an October to remember. Luckily, history shows that even a slow start won’t knock them completely out of the picture.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga are here to stay
To finish off this review of the season, I’m going to shout out two of my favorite pitchers to watch, even dating back to their days playing professional ball in Japan.
Last year both of these pitchers shined a ton with Shota Imanaga being one of the best pitchers in the entire league, finishing fifth in Cy Young voting and having an ERA under three. He’s picked up right where he left off and looks even better, and poised to be the clear number one after Justin Steele went down with an injury. He may be 32 years old by the season’s end, but I suspect he’s got a ton left in the tank for future seasons.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto also shined last year finishing with an ERA after three and perhaps left some on the table being limited with an injury. This season, he looks even better with an ERA of 1.23 to start the season, aided by multiple plus pitches including an absolute filthy splitter. He looks to be worth nearly every penny of the $325 million contract awarded to him coming out of Japan.
While the season is still young, the trends set here can sustain, as we’ll likely see in the pitchers mentioned to end this piece. They could also burst, in the case of the Giants’ torrid start.
Stone O’Bryant is a columnist. Contact him at [email protected].