MLB Opening Day and Season Preview, Schedule and More
Baseball is back and ESPN is playing two on Opening Day. Here's the schedule, along with a season preview.
Nothing says Spring like the return of Major League Baseball and after a long, cold winter, the MLB season gets underway with Opening Day on Thursday, March 27. Originally, all 30 teams were scheduled to be in action on Opening Day. However, the Tampa Bay Rays - whose Tropicana Field was severely damaged in Hurricane Milton last October - needed an extra day to prepare their new home field of Steinbrenner Field, the Spring Training site for their AL East rival New York Yankees. They’ll play their season-opening series against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, March 28.
The Rays are not the only team that will play its home games in a minor league park this season. The Athletics have dropped the Oakland Coliseum (and an official affiliation with a city) as they wait to move into their new home in Las Vegas. The A’s are planning to play at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento (home of the Sacramento River Cats) until their new stadium is completed in 2028.
While things will certainly look different for fans of those teams in 2025, the rest of the baseball landscape should be mostly familiar. Check out our Opening Day and season preview below the schedule of upcoming nationally televised games on Sling.
MLB Baseball - Nationally Televised Games
To watch the most MLB Baseball with Sling, subscribe to Sling Orange + Blue with Sports Extras. Or add MLB.TV to your subscription to watch all out-of-market games!
2025 MLB Opening Day Preview
https://youtu.be/9lcxYA7yJBE?si=PKgzAWmNiIuy7ZiP
ESPN leads off its coverage of the 2025 MLB season with a double-header of compelling games on Thursday, March 27. The defending AL pennant-winning New York Yankees will host the Milwaukee Brewers at 3pm ET; Freddy Peralta takes the mound for the Brewers, while the Yankees will start Carlos Rodon. That’s followed at 5pm ET by another interleague series, as the Detroit Tigers, last year’s Cinderella team, travel to the west coast to take on the defending World Series winners, the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2024 Cy Young winner Tarik Skybal will start for the Tigers, while new Dodger and two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell takes the mound in his first-ever start for LA.
As for the other 24 MLB teams playing on Opening Day, you can watch every one of those out-of-market games with a subscription to MLB.TV. Follow this link for more information subscribing to MLB.TV with Sling.
How to Watch MLB Games with Sling
In addition to MLB.TV and ESPN (which airs a weekly Sunday Night Baseball game, and on select Thursdays), nationally televised MLB games will be available on the following networks:
FOX (Sling Blue in Select Markets) - While the schedule varies week-to-week, FOX games typically air on Thursday night, Saturday afternoon, and/ or Saturday night. FOX will also be the home of the 2025 World Series and All-Star Game.
FS1 (Sling Blue) - As a sister channel to FOX, FS1 typically airs games on Saturday afternoons, Monday nights, and Wednesday nights.
TBS (Sling Orange or Blue) - TBS will have a weekly MLB game on Tuesday nights. It will also be home to multiple postseason games in the lead up to the World Series.
MLB Network (Sports Extras Pack) - MLB Network will also have multiple games weekly, mostly on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.
Streaming Channels - For even more MLB baseball, subscribe to Apple TV+ for a Friday night game, and tune-in to The Roku Channel for select games on Sunday afternoons (or mornings on the west coast).
To watch the most MLB Baseball with Sling, use the link below to subscribe to Sling Orange + Blue and add the Sports Extras pack!
https://main--sling--aemsites.aem.page/aemedge/fragments/try-sling-combo
2025 MLB Season Preview
https://youtu.be/XMqYIj_J2c0?si=4JLtKOixH2QzXPEl
No surprise here: the Dodgers and Yankees are the National and American League favorites to return to the World Series for the second straight year. They have the reigning MVPs (all-world superstar Shohei Ohtani in LA and Aaron Judge in NY), they both have payrolls around $300 million, and they both made a splash in the offseason.
In other unsurprising news, the NL East once again looks like the most competitive division in baseball (and maybe all of North American sports). After the Dodgers (+290), the Atlanta Braves have the second-best odds to win the World Series (+750), and the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets are tied for fourth-best (+1200). Just like last year, the three-way race for the NL East title will likely come down to the final week of the season.
Here are some other quick-hit storylines to keep an eye on this season:
- Juan Soto joining the New York Mets on the biggest contract in the history of sports: 15-years, $765 million.
- Other major acquisitions and moves include Max Fried joining the Yankees; the Dodgers signing coveted Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki; the Sox swap, with White Sox ace Garrett Crochet joining Boston, who also signed Alex Bregman; speaking of the Astros, the Cubs got Kyle Tucker from Houston in exchange for Isaac Paredes; and the Diamondbacks signing Corbin Burnes away from Baltimore.
- The New Stars of the ‘Show’: This year’s edition of the hit video game MLB The Show 25 featured three rising stars under the age of 24 - Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes; Baltimore Orioles shortstop and AL MVP candidate Gunnar Henderson; and Cincinnati Reds speedster Elly De La Cruz. Between that trio of stars and other 25-and-under talent like Bobby Witt Jr. (SS, Kansas City Royals), Corbin Carroll (OF, Arizona Diamondbacks), Jackson Chourio (OF, Milwaukee Brewers), Julio Rodríguez (OF, Seattle Mariners), Jackson Merrill (OF, San Diego Padres), Lawrence Butler (OF, Athletics), Mark Vientos (3B, Mets), Riley Greene (OF, Tigers), and Austin Wells (C, Yankees), we could see a ton of young players take over in 2025.
- Among the pack of injured stars who should return to the diamond in 2025, former MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Braves gets the lead off spot. His teammate Spencer Strider is also expected to return to the mound at some point this season. The Rangers are hoping to get something out of Jacob deGrom as he enters the third year of his five-year deal. And former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara is expected to rejoin the Miami Marlins rotation this season. Other injured fan-favorites on the comeback trail include past MVPs Mike Trout (Anaheim Angels) and Christian Yelich (Brewers). Terry Francona is also returning to the dugout this season as manager of the young and hungry Cincinnati Reds.