9 MLB storylines to watch for this season ahead of opening day

The Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in the Opening Series, winning 6-3 and the series 2-0. Craig Carton, Danny Parkins and Mark Schlereth discuss whether anyone can stop the Dodgers.

Major League Baseball’s season officially began last week with the Tokyo Series, where the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series. 

The rest of the league begins its season this weekend, and the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers open the slate Thursday at 3:05 p.m. ET.

Before the first pitch for all 30 teams, here are nine storylines to watch heading into the season. 

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Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts celebrates after the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in Game 5 to win the 2024 World Series in New York Oct. 31, 2024. (Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)

No team has repeated as World Series champions since the Yankees did it three years in a row, from 1998-2000. 

The Dodgers are well-positioned to become the first team since that Yankees team to win the World Series in consecutive years. 

After they dispatched the Yankees in five games in the World Series, the Dodgers added more stars to a roster that was already filled with them. 

They signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, star Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki and added relief aces Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to an already stacked pitching staff.

There is no deeper or more talented starting rotation than the Dodgers. The starting rotation for the Dodgers to begin the season:

That does not include Shohei Ohtani, who is expected to return to the mound around May, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who will join the rotation after he recovers from offseason surgeries