Snell (2018, 2023) and Tarik Skubal (2024) will face off Thursday at Dodger Stadium, the only MLB opening day matchup featuring two Cy Young Award winners.
LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell, the Dodgers’ biggest signing of the offseason, will get the ball for the team’s first home game of the 2025 season, starting on Thursday against the Tigers at Dodger Stadium.
Left-hander Tarik Skubal starts for the Tigers, coming off a unanimous American League Cy Young Award after leading the circuit in ERA, strikeouts, and wins. Coupled with Snell’s Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2023, Dodgers vs. Tigers is the only MLB opening day pitching matchup that features two former Cy Young Award winners.
“If you look at Major League Baseball starting pitching, by math or anyone’s opinion, those two are two of the top five pitchers in baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “To have those two southpaws goiong against each other is going to be special.”
The home opener has an afternoon start time of 4:10 p.m., and will be televised exclusively by ESPN as part of an opening day doubleheader on the network. The usual ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ crew of Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Pérez will call Dodgers-Tigers.
The Dodgers signed Snell on November 30 to a five-year contract worth $182 million. He reunited with Andrew Friedman, who was general manager of the Rays when Snell was drafted by Tampa Bay out of high school in 2011.
“Being able to pitched in a packed stadium, to make moments for people, this is where you want to play. I don’t think there’s a situation that you could be in better than being right here,” Snell said during his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium on December 3. “Knowing Andrew as well as I know him, that played a big part. It all started because he believed in me.”
Snell made two Cactus League starts and pitched in a game on the backfields at Camelback Ranch while the team was in Arizona. Then he pitched on Saturday night (U.S. time), March 15 in the Dodgers’ exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers at the Tokyo Dome. Snell struck out seven of his 18 batters faced in that game and retired his first nine hitters, but also allowed three runs in an extended fourth inning.
Snell said he pitched another simulated game on Saturday to stay on schedule.
Following Snell against the Tigers are Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, who started the first two games in Tokyo and will start Friday and Saturday. The Dodgers are off on Sunday, March 30, then Tyler Glasnow and Dustin May will start the first two games against the Braves on March 31 and April 1.
“It was more driven by Yamamoto and Roki, just trying to keep them on some sort of a schedule,” Roberts said. “Where to introduce Tyler into the 2025 season — pushing him back just made more sense, to keep those other two guys more in line.”
Glasnow and May will also start Monday and Tuesday against the Angels during the Freeway Series in Anaheim, to round out the Dodgers exhibition schedule.