Miguel Rojas gladly gave up his No. 11 to new Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Roki Sasaki and went back to 72, the jersey number he wore as a rookie in 2014.
“I’m not asking for anything. I have everything that I want in life,” said Rojas, a 35-year-old infielder from Venezuela who returned to the Dodgers in 2023 after playing for the Miami Marlins from 2015-22. “All I ask for him is trying to get us another championship.”
He’s in the right spot. The Dodgers, who start their spring training workouts start Sunday in Glendale, Arizona, are trying to become Major League Baseball’s first repeat champions since the New York Yankees won three titles in a row from 1998 to 2000.
Coming off their second title in five seasons — the National League champions beat the Yankees, their old rivals from the American League, in five games last October to win the World Series for the eighth time — the Dodgers added Sasaki, the prized 23-year-old right-hander from Japan, and left-hander Blake Snell to a pitching staff expecting two-way star Shohei Ohtani to return to the mound in April or May after recovering from elbow surgery.
“Kudos to them. They’re doing everything right,” said Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner who pitched for the Dodgers during the second half of the 2021 season. “They have a well-oiled machine.”
Los Angeles will face the Chicago Cubs for a two-game series on March 18-19 in Tokyo that will serve as the opening set for MLB’s 2025 regular season, with the opener for other teams coming on March 27-28. The Cubs will actually be the first team to start practice, with their first workout set for even earlier Sunday in Mesa, Arizona, and all 30 MLB clubs will be on the field by Thursday.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell also is switching numbers, to 11, after yielding No. 30 to Kyle Tucker, an MLB All-Star outfielder the past three seasons who was acquired from the Houston Astros in December.
Counsell chose 11 in honor of Jim Leyland, one of his earliest managers in the majors and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame as of last year. When Leyland led the Florida Marlins to the 1997 World Series title, he reminded players they needed 11 postseason wins for the title, matching the number on his back.
“I’m hoping to use that speech a little bit later in the month of September,” Counsell said.
Chicago’s other team, the AL’s White Sox, is coming off a 121-loss season, the most for any team in the majors since 1900. They’re in the type of rebuild that requires more than a little patience.
“I hope our fans at some point understand that this is going to pay off long term,” general manager Chris Getz said, “and us being very committed and disciplined is going to serve us well in the future.”
The Dodgers are building, too — they’re just not starting from the basement like the White Sox.
They committed $452 million to eight players during the offseason. The Dodgers kept utilityman Tommy Edman with a five-year contract for $74 million, outfielder Teoscar Hernández with a three-year deal for $66 million and right-hander Blake Treinen for $22 million over two years.
In addition to Sasaki ($6.5 million signing bonus) and Snell ($182 million for five years), the Dodgers added reliever Tanner Scott ($72 million for four years), outfielder Michael Conforto ($17 million for one season) and second baseman Hyeseong Kim ($12.5 million for three years).
Tyler Glasnow is projected for the rotation after finishing last season on the injured list. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw is expected to re-sign and return to the mound after he recovers from knee and toe operations.
“The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Everything that they do and have done is consistent with our rules. They’re trying to give their fans the best possible product. Those are all positives. I recognize, however, and my emails certainly reflect that there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their team’s ability to compete.
“And we always have to be concerned when our fans are concerned about something. But pinning it on the Dodgers, I’m not in that camp.”
The New York Mets, in search of the team’s first World Series title since 1986, are being no less free with their money after losing last year’s NL Championship Series to the Dodgers in six games.
Mets owner Steve Cohen gave a record $765 million, 15-year contract to outfielder Juan Soto — luring him from the rival Yankees — as part of a $925 million splurge on eight free agents.
“If you want something that’s amazing, it’s going to be uncomfortable. It’s never going to be comfortable,” Cohen said. “And so I always stretch a little bit because I know that’s what it takes to get it done.”
The Mets also added right-handers Griffin Canning, Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas along with left-hander A.J. Minter, and they re-signed first baseman Pete Alonso, left-hander Sean Manaea, right-hander Ryne Stanek and outfielder Jesse Winker. They acquired outfielder Jose Siri in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays.
As for the Rays, they’re one of two AL teams preparing for vagabond seasons in minor league ballparks, with the Athletics the other club. After 57 years in Oakland, the A’s will play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, for at least three seasons before moving to a planned ballpark in Las Vegas. The Rays will play their home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, the spring training home of the Yankees, because of damage at Tropicana Field in nearby St. Petersburg caused by Hurricane Milton.
And the changes aren’t just on the rosters; as usual, there are some rule tweaks on the way.
MLB increased the penalty for a violation of the shift rule requiring two infielders to be on the infield dirt on each side of second base when a pitch is thrown. A batter will now reach on an error, with a manager having the option of taking the result of the play. During the 2023-24 seasons, the penalty was a ball being added to the count or the manager taking the result of the play. There were just four violations of the shift rule in 2023 and two last year.
If a baserunner runs through second or third base on a potential force play and doesn’t try to hold the base or advance, he will be called out for abandonment. If a lead runner crosses the plate, a video review would determine whether he touched the plate before the trailing runner’s second foot touched the ground on the other side of the base. The intent is to discourage baserunners from going through second and third with no attempt to hold the base in order to allow a lead runner to score.