LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers will open their 2025 regular season early Tuesday morning in Tokyo, facing the Chicago Cubs following another free- spending offseason as they attempt to win back-to-back World Series championships for the first time in franchise history.

What You Need To Know

  • The Dodgers will open their 2025 regular season early Tuesday morning in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs 

  • First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 a.m. Pacific Time

  • The oper features an all- Japanese pitching matchup — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga

  • Tuesday's game will be televised by Fox and SportsNet LA

First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 a.m. Pacific Time, with an all-Japanese pitching matchup — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. The two were teammates on the Japanese team that won the 2023 World Baseball Classic, along with Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki, who is set to pitch for the Dodgers on Wednesday in the finale of the two-game series.

The Dodgers will be the visiting team for both games at the Tokyo Dome.

Tuesday's game will be televised by Fox and SportsNet LA.

Yamamoto was among the Dodgers' high-priced acquisitions entering the 2024 season. They signed him to a 12-year, $325 million contract on Dec. 27, 2023, the largest deal for a pitcher in terms of years and value in Major League Baseball history, after he pitched seven seasons with the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball

Yamamoto was 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in the 2024 regular season, which was interrupted by a stint on the injured list and a rehabilitation assignment to their Triple-A Oklahoma City Pacific Coast League affiliate from June 16 to Sept. 10 because of triceps tightness.

The Dodgers were 11-7 in his 18 starts.

Yamamoto was 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two starts against the Cubs, allowing one unearned run and six hits in nine innings. The Dodgers lost the game in which Yamamoto had a no-decision. It was his first major league start after his stint on the injured list.

Yamamoto was 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA in four postseason starts. The Dodgers won all of his postseason starts, including Game 2 of the World Series.

Imanaga also began his major league career in 2024, signing a four-year, $53 million contract on Jan. 11, 2024, that also contained a fifth-year option.

He was 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA in 29 starts and was selected for the All-Star Game. The Cubs were 23-6 in his starts.

Imanaga was 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in his two starts against the Dodgers. The Cubs also won the game Imanaga had a no decision.

The first of the Dodgers' high-priced acquisitions for the 2025 season was two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers Nov. 30, the third-largest for a left- handed pitcher in MLB history based on total value. He is expected to make his Dodger debut during the team's first homestand, March 27-April 2.

The Dodgers signed Sasaki for a relative pittance on Jan. 22.

Sasaki will receive a $6.5 million signing bonus, according to multiple published reports. Because he is under 25 years old, MLB international signing rules limited Sasaki to taking a minor-league contract. He is expected to make at or near the MLB minimum salary of $760,000 in 2025 and $780,000 in 2026. He will likely be eligible for arbitration in 2027 and receive significant increases beginning then.

Other Dodger offseason pitching acquisitions include two-time all-star reliever Kirby Yates and 2024 all-star reliever Tanner Scott.

The Dodgers will play in Southern California for the first time in 2025 on Sunday, facing the Angels at Dodger Stadium to begin the three-game exhibition Freeway Series, which also consists of games next Monday and March 25 at Angel Stadium. They will play their regular-season home opener March 27 against the Detroit Tigers.

Japan is the fifth foreign country in which the Dodgers have played a regular-season game. They played their first regular-season game outside the United States on May 27, 1969, defeating the Montreal Expos, 5-3. They have also played in Mexico and Australia and began the 2024 season by playing in South Korea.

Since moving to Los Angeles following the 1957 season, the Dodgers have played exhibition games in Japan, China and Taiwan. When they were based in Brooklyn, the Dodgers played spring training games in the Dominican Republic and Cuba and made a postseason tour of Japan in 1956.