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Happy Opening Day eve! Our gift to you: three fun 2025 storylines to follow, hand-picked by Jayson Stark. We also wrap up division previews with the NL West, and Ken goes behind the scenes of Freddie Freeman’s World Series grand slam. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!

Division Previews: What happens below the Dodgers?

Perhaps the most truly fascinating race in all of baseball: who will finish second in the NL West?

Because yeah, the reigning champion Dodgers (98-64 last year) went out and added Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott, Michael Conforto, a six-pack of Dom Perignon, three Bugatti Veyrons, a Learjet and several mid-sized municipalities. The Dodgers own Idaho now, not sure if you heard. If everything goes right for them, they could challenge the 2001 Mariners’ record of 116-46. Next.

The real intrigue starts in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks (89-73) now employ Corbin Burnes, who has finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting in each of the last five seasons (including a win in 2021). They replaced Christian Walker at first base with Josh Naylor (trade, Guardians). Joc Pederson (free agent, Rangers) is gone too. The D-Backs barely missed the playoffs last year. Will Burnes get them back into October?

Meanwhile, the Padres (93-69) were very close to knocking the Dodgers out of the playoffs last year. But rather than load up this offseason, they did very little as an ownership dispute played out. Jurickson Profar is in Atlanta now, and those persistent Dylan Cease trade rumors haven’t fully gone away. They’re the second-best team in the division until they’re not, but I’m not sure they’ve done enough to stay ahead of Arizona.

As for the Giants (80-82) — Snell and Conforto are out, Justin Verlander and Willy Adames are in. Those aren’t exactly offsetting transactions, but Adames should help. I like their rotation, especially now that Robbie Ray is healthy again, but do they have the horsepower to finish any higher than fourth? I kinda don’t think so, not in this division.

And the Rockies (61-101) just traded Nolan Jones back to the Guardians. Sure, why not.

My pick to win it all? The Rockies. Life is short, and predictions are meaningless. (But here’s what our experts had to say.)

With that, our division previews are concluded! Opening Day is tomorrow!

Ken’s Notebook: Relive Freeman’s historic grand slam

Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. threw Freeman a 92-mph fastball, down and in, nearly off the plate.

Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo: You’d think Freddie would see a pitch because Ohtani swung at the first pitch.

Yankees catcher Austin Wells: I was somewhat surprised that he did get that swing off on the first pitch like that.

Cortes: It was in enough, but low. And he’s known for going the opposite way. His game is left-center field. So for him to turn (on) that pitch, I give him all the credit.

Freeman:I went against the grain of who I am. In that situation, I always try and hit the ball to left-center. I looked in and stayed on the heater because if I looked in, I could (lay) off the cutter and slider away. Luckily, he threw it right where I was looking.

Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman: I was on second base, so I was the winning run, I was just thinking, “Find a way to score after Freddie hits the single.” It comes off the bat, I immediately start to get the break, and then a split second after he hit it, I was like, “OK, I don’t need to run very hard. That’s clearly a home run.”

Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle, who already had pitched: I was in the training room, watching the game with a few of the guys. Before we even saw him throw a pitch on TV, we heard the noise. We already knew what was coming. (The average delay in the broadcast is seven seconds.) I didn’t even watch it. I just got up and walked to my locker.

Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough: When it left his bat, I knew right away it was a homer. You know the trajectory, the sound. I kind of blacked out.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow: Nobody really knew what to do. Everyone just kind of lost conscious thought. I remember looking at (Michael) Kopech and everyone was like, “What do we do?”

Freddie Freeman’s father, Fred: I couldn’t believe it happened. I was sitting next to (film and TV producer) Burt Sugarman and (TV personality) Mary Hart. He pounds me on the back and said, “I knew he could do it,” something like that. And then Alma came over and jumped into my arms. (Alma Freeman is Fred’s wife and Freddie’s stepmother; Freddie’s mother, Rosemary, died of melanoma when he was 10).

Read more here.

Guest Appearances: Stark’s 3 favorite storylines for 2025

We know the A’s and Rays will spend this season playing in minor-league stadiums. That’s surreal enough. But let your imaginations run wild and ask: What happens if one or both make the playoffs? Great question. Baseball can’t even answer it yet. Are they actually going to play postseason baseball games in ballparks that don’t even seat 15,000 people?

This is a question MLB doesn’t want you to ask. So how can we not ask it? And the only way we’ll get an answer is if it actually happens. So shouldn’t we definitely root for that? I’d vote yes.

Last year, Shohei Ohtani became the first member of the 50-50 Club (homers and steals). Twice before that, he’d crashed through the gates of the 20-20-20 Club (20 homers, 20 steals, 20 starts as a pitcher).

So now what? He’s a superhero, always looking for stuff other humans can’t do. So here’s an idea: What baseball needs is somebody to crash the 10-10-10-10-10 Club.

Ohtani has led the league in triples (in 2021, with eight). But he has never hit 10 of them in a season. So this would be an excellent time. Why the heck not? He’s Ohtani!

3. Elly steals 100
I have an assignment for Elly De La Cruz: Please steal 100 bases. That’s all. Nobody has done it in more than 40 years, since Rickey Henderson’s heyday. But why can’t the Reds’ shortstop break that streak? He’s basically the fastest baserunner alive.

He stole 67 last year — even though he only reached first or second base, via a hit or walk, 194 times. That works out to one steal every 2.9 times on first or second. In Rickey’s prime, he just made up his mind to go — and had multiple seasons with a steal about every 2.0 times on first or second. So it’s all mindset — and bumping up that .324 career on-base percentage. You think the baseball world might get caught up in that story if Elly was at 90 steals in September? Of course it would. And if not, I’d be happy to help with that.

Thanks for stopping by! Follow Jayson’s written work here, and listen to “Starkville” wherever you enjoy podcasts.

Handshakes and High Fives

A throwback Royals viewfinder? An Orioles hockey jersey? Bobbleheads of “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz, as well as Billy Joel and Ice Cube? All of these items — and many more exquisite promotional giveaways — can be yours at MLB ballparks this season.

With no games on the docket until the Brewers and Yankees’ first pitch tomorrow at 3:05 p.m. ET, there’s plenty of time for readers to get through an array of impressive features on the site today, beginning with Chris Kirschner’s eye-opening look at Jazz Chisholm.

Former Yankee Juan Soto won’t be starting his season in the Bronx this year, having taken $765 million of Steve Cohen’s money in the offseason. Will Sammon spoke with him about the pressure that comes with earning the richest contract in the history of sports.

A giant contract will change a player’s life. So will winning a Cy Young award, as Tarik Skubal is realizing.

Andy McCullough looks at a number of former relievers who are now thriving later in their careers after converting to starters.

Will Angels rookie Ryan Johnson eventually be one of those pitchers? First, he’ll have to throw his first inning of professional baseball, which will come at the major-league level. Los Angeles’ 2024 second-round pick made the Opening Day roster without making a stop in the minors, becoming the first pitcher to do that since Garrett Crochet in 2020.

Not only does he have a name perfect for a soap opera villain or character in SNL’s “The Californians” sketch, but rookie Drake Baldwin will also possess the Opening Day starting catcher job for the Braves. David O’Brien introduces us to the prospect, who will at least hold down the gig for a few weeks until Sean Murphy returns from injury.

And finally, Keith Law delivers his annual season predictions, projections and wild guesses.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Eno Sarris’ 10 bold predictions for the season.

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