Baseball season begins while America sleeps

By David Mullen

While you were sleeping, you may have missed that the 2024 MLB baseball season is officially underway. The Los Angeles Dodgers faced the San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea on March 20 and March 21 at 5 a.m. CDT. There was no need to set an alarm as 2,428 regular season games remain.

The Far East got to see two rival NL west teams play. Los Angeles and San Diego are 120 miles apart and yet they traveled 6,000 miles to face each other. Thank you, MLB, for promoting the already popular baseball in South Korea. 

In previewing the National League, the Dodgers opened their massive vault in the offseason and filled Chavez Ravine with free agent signings like the amazing Shohei Ohtani, prized Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez. Via trade, they also added Tyler Glasnow to join Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.  

Ohtani signed the richest contract in baseball history at $700 million. That’s 935 billion South Korean Won in case Ohtani needs to convert USD at the airport currency exchange kiosk. Baseball’s star power is in Hollywood in 2024, and anything less than 102 wins would be considered a flop. 

The Padres still have a prayer with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado and added pitcher Dylan Cease. But popular skipper Bob Melvin went to San Francisco and San Diego traded Juan Soto to the New York Yankees for prospects. I see a fourth-place finish for the Friars.

The defending NL Champions are also in the NL West. Even as many MLB pundits think the Arizona Diamondbacks crawled under a rock, they still have plenty of bite with pitchers Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez and NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll. Arizona will be a Wild Card team again this year. Last year, being a Wild Card team worked out just fine for Arizona.

The San Francisco Giants added two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell, Gold Glover Matt Chapman, Japanese star Jung Hoo Lee and Melvin to lead them. The team is built for Oracle Park, where pitching and defense are premiums. 

Nice guy manager Bud Black will see red again with this year’s Colorado Rockies expected to lose more than 100 games while forced to play in the league’s toughest division.

The NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers had an offseason as flat as day old lager. Popular manager Craig Counsell headed down I-94 to manage the Chicago Cubs, and ace Corbin Burnes was traded to the Baltimore Orioles. What remains looks like a beer league softball team. 

Under Counsell’s council, Cubs fans hope the team plays better than .500 ball. But this is a mediocre team that did little in the off-season except keep CF Cody Bellinger. Another average team, the Cincinnati Reds, will play without team leader Joey Votto for the first time since 2007. 

The team has young Spencer Steer, TJ Friedl (currently out with a broken wrist), Jonathan India, Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz. The Pittsburgh Pirates are still retooling, but now have hitters Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski and pitcher Mitch Keller in place. Former Rangers Martín Pérez and Aroldis Chapman are now Pirates. The Reds and Bucs are on the way up, just not this year. 

The St. Louis Cardinals are coming off a miserable fifth place finish. But they added pitchers Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to stalwarts Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. The 2023 Cardinals were an aberration. The 2024 squad will win the NL Central. 

In the NL East, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are ready to continue a battle that began in 2023. The Braves won the division, and then the Phillies knocked them out of the playoffs. The Braves, with MVP Ronald Acuña Jr., are even better in 2024, adding starter Chris Sale. The Phillies just want to stay healthy. A full season from Bryce Harper solidifies a lineup with Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto and makes the Phils a Wild Card team.   

This season was supposed to be the year of the Miami Marlins. But losing their best player — 2022 Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara to Tommy John surgery — puts the Marlins underwater. 

In a story that would never make Broadway, in 2023, owner Steve Cohen cast the New York Mets with stars and amassed the highest payroll in baseball history. At the halfway point last season, the team was in fourth place, 10 games under .500 and closing down the show early. Nothing works in Washington either, as the Nationals went from a World Series crown in 2019 to four straight last-place finishes.

The Braves, Phillies and Cardinals will try to knock the Dodgers off the big stage, but it appears the award goes to Los Angeles in 2024. The All-World Ohtani will play in his first World Series if he recovers from the trip to Korea.  

Baseball is a game of traditions. But beginning the regular season in Seoul with two games between West Coast rivals at 3 a.m. PDT is something MLB had better sleep on.