The tentative 2025 MLB schedule was released today, and amongst the many highlights was one that had been predicted by many for months: the Dodgers will play the Cubs in Tokyo to start the season.
The selection of these two clubs is hardly a surprise, as they have a collection of former Nippon league players on their teams. The Cubs have Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga, who just played in the MLB All Star Game, while the Dodgers have Yoshinobu Yamamoto and, of course, Shohei Ohtani. It was hard to believe that any other teams could have possibly been named without someone in MLB’s marketing department losing their job.
The games will be played at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19, nine days before the rest of the MLB season begins. No ticket information has been released, but we’ll keep you posted as news breaks. For the moment, if you’re thinking about heading to Japan to see the games, hotels can be very expensive in Tokyo. It’s a good idea to start looking for refundable hotel reservations so you at least have something to build your plans around. You can bet that Dodgers fans will be out in force in Japan, so hotels could become scarce.
As far as the impact on the Cubs and Dodgers schedules goes, the Cubs will still visit the Dodgers for a three-game series from April 11-13 in LA, and the Dodgers will visit the Cubs for a two-game series at Wrigley on April 22-23. Sadly for Cubs fans, it looks like they’re losing two home games at Wrigley against the Dodgers to the Tokyo Dome.
