The beginning of the MLB season is always a time of hope. Other than a couple select teams (RIP Rockies, White Sox, et al) there is at least a chance they’ll make the playoffs, and that gives us all something in common. Sure, there are some teams far more likely, others nearly guaranteed, but we all have that hope.
Admittedly, that hope is hard to find at the beginning of this season if your a Diamondbacks fan. You’re looking at a team that failed by every objective measure in 2024, then did next to nothing to get better in the offseason. When your two biggest acquisitions are washed corner infielders and two pitchers that were on your team last season, it’s just not particularly inspiring. In fact, you could be forgiven if you think we actually got worse. Geno+ for Arenado isn’t exactly a trade most of us would make, if it were actually a trade. That’s before we get to the injuries that have already piled up.
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Even beyond that, there are bigger picture reasons for a lack of hope. There is a distinct possibility, bordering on certainty, that this will be the end of MLB’s streak of no games lost to labor strife. So many factors are playing into it, including some that the Diamondbacks know well as members of the NL West. The environment the game occurs in has changed, but the game itself has largely stayed the same. That’s going to come to an end, and in a brutal, protracted way. That hurts the hope.
All that to say to feel less, or even no hope, at the start of this season is understandable. I’m the eternal optimist, so I still think we have a chance, but even for myself and my 92 win prediction… I get it. But let me take this time to remind us all that there is still a chance. Still a chance for this season, still a chance that MLB comes out stronger and healthier on the other side of the impending work stoppage, and maybe, just maybe, the Diamondbacks will find themselves on a more even footing with the multi-billion dollar investment groups that own other teams.
But now, the conjecture, the speculation ends. Baseball isn’t played on paper. It’s played on grass and turf and dirt. It’s time for baseball.
All stats from 2025. Game 2 and 3 Dodger starters are unconfirmed and projected by ESPN.
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Game 1 – 3/26, 5:30 PM: Zac Gallen (13-15, 4.83 ERA/89 ERA+, 1.26 WHIP, 1.1 bWAR) vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.49 ERA/167 ERA+, 0.99 WHIP, 4.9 bWAR)
Zac Gallen has a lot to prove this season. He was untradeable at the deadline, unsignable in the offseason, and for good reason. He had an all time bad season. It was his worst personally, he was 45 worst by ERA in the entire league. He technically took less than the original qualifying offer to come back to the Diamondbacks on a one year deal. There is a lot on the line for him to show that he can reach the Cy Young finalist heights that he’s reached before, and much of the hope the Diamondbacks have is riding on him putting it all out there to get that contract he thinks he deserves. As far as that goes… well Merrill Kelly is already throwing bullpens, so we have a backup plan.
Yamamoto put together a stellar 2025 and more than earned his third place finish in the Cy Young voting. In another world, one where Paul Skenes doesn’t exist, he stood a decent chance at winning. His spring training has been much of the same, with an ERA just a tick higher than his last season. We all know that spring stats mean next to nothing, but personally I feel like if its just a continuation of what he did last season, it’s at least a decent sign. Going to be tough with him at the top of the Dodgers rotation again.
Game 2 – 3/27, 7:10 PM: Ryne Nelson (7-3, 3.39 ERA/127 ERA+, 1.07 WHIP, 3.4 bWAR) vs. Emmet Sheehan (6-3 2.82 ERA/147 ERA+, 0.96 WHIP, 1.1 WAR)
It’s not a hard argument to make that Ryne Nelson has been the best pitcher on the Diamondbacks since about the trade deadline of the 2024 season, and finally that is being rewarded with being added to the opening day starting rotation. It’s been a long time coming, and many people said it should have been taken a step further with an Opening Day start, but at least it’s finally happened. Now it’s up to him to make it worth it. If he continues to pitch at the 3.16 ERA he had as a starter last year, he stands a good chance of again being the best pitcher on the team.
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Emmet Sheehan missed the later part of the 2023 season, the entirety of the 2024 season, and just shy of the first half of the 2025 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, like so many Dodgers players do. When he came back, he pitched very well for the Dodgers, again like so many players do, but struggled in the postseason as a reliever. Obviously it did not matter much, however. Thanks at least in part to Blake Snell starting the season on the IL, Sheehan will once again be starting for the Dodgers and will look to continue what he had going during the 2025 regular season.
Game 3 – 3/28, 6:10 PM: Eduardo Rodriguez (9-9, 5.02 ERA/86 ERA+, 1.54 WHIP, 0.4 bWAR) vs. Tyler Glasnow (4-3, 3.19 ERA/130 ERA+, 1.09 WHIP, 1.9 bWAR)
Eduardo Rodriguez is coming off a great World Baseball Classic, and I for one hope that experiencing winning baseball that he was a large part of will jump start the bounce back season we’ve been hoping for from him since, well, he joined the Diamondbacks. It’s been a rough road for him, and at no point has he lived up to the pretty hefty contract he was given by Hazen and the Diamondbacks. If, somehow, he were able to put it together and pitch even to an average result, it would go a long way to the Diamondbacks being Wild Card contenders this season. As a side note, I do find it interesting that the team did actually have a winning record in his starts in 2025. Just speaks volumes about how good the offense really was.
Glasnow is another oft injured Dodger pitcher, though that started long before his tenure in Los Angels. Last season he only pitched 90 innings for them, after suffering a shoulder injury in late April that took a while to come back from, and in 2024 it was an elbow sprain. When he actually takes the field, however, he is a good pitcher, having not had an ERA+ lower than 114 in his last five seasons. The only question for him is his health.
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Conclusion
The scheduling gods are wasting no time in seeing what the Diamondbacks are made of. If their players and the team as a whole are going to have a bounce back season, it will have to start from the very first pitch. All roads to the playoffs have to go through the Dodgers, might as well get it started sooner rather than later.
Am I confident in this series? Not particularly, but hopefully they can prove me and the many other doubters wrong. I say they go 1-2, however. Go Dbacks!
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