Baseball is back! Here is your one-stop shop to keep up with the action as your team takes the field.
The start of the 2022 MLB season has finally arrived! Beginning with seven Opening Day games on Thursday and continuing with the rest of MLB in action Friday, it’s time to welcome in a new year on the diamond. To celebrate baseball’s return, we’ve asked our experts to weigh in on what they are most excited to watch — and make a fearless Opening Day prediction. Once the games begin, be sure to refresh this page early and often for our live updates and takeaways from every Opening Day game on both Thursday and Friday. Season preview: Power ranks| Predictions| Moves that rocked the offseason ESPN+: Passan’s predictions| How Opening Day was saved| 2022 changes Play: ESPN Opening Day classic| ESPN fantasy baseball: Sign up for free! All times Eastern 2:20 p.m.: Brewers ( Burnes) at Cubs ( Hendricks) 4:10 p.m.: Guardians ( Bieber) at Royals ( Greinke) 4:15 p.m.: Pirates ( Brubaker) at Cardinals ( Wainwright) 7:05 p.m. on ESPN+: Mets (TBD) at Nationals ( Corbin) 8:00 p.m. on ESPN2: Reds ( Mahle) at Braves ( Fried) 9:38 p.m.: Astros ( Valdez) at Angels ( Ohtani) 9:40 p.m.: Padres ( Darvish) at Diamondbacks ( Bumgarner) Friday openers: Red Sox-Yankees, White Sox-Tigers, A’s-Phillies, Orioles-Rays, Dodgers-Rockies, Mariners-Twins, Marlins-Giants and Rangers-Blue Jays What’s the one thing you are most excited to watch on Opening Day? Bradford Doolittle: I’m in Minneapolis for a Twins-Mariners series that was pushed back a day because of some inhospitable early spring weather. The upside is that I get two Opening Days and can watch the debut of Bobby Witt Jr. in Kansas City on a screen of some sort Thursday before getting to see Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez firsthand on Friday. We haven’t always seen the most exciting prospects on Opening Day (Witt is No.2 and Rodriguez is No.3 on Kiley McDaniel’s top 100 prospect list), so this is a wonderful thing. A great American League Rookie of the Year race is on. Jesse Rogers: The debut of Cubs rookie Seiya Suzuki. He’s a multiple-tools player with power to all fields and a rocket of an arm. As noted in the recent collective bargaining agreement battle, most rookies don’t make a lot of money — but Suzuki signed a five-year, $85 million contract this offseason, so eyes will be on him throughout the baseball world. He has a chance to be the next big star on a team suddenly void of them. Thursday is his first chance to show fans across the city of Chicago what they’re getting. David Schoenfield: The most fascinating team to watch in April might be the Padres. There is a lot of pressure on a team that now runs one of the highest payrolls in baseball and is coming off a losing season. They collapsed down the stretch, and while the rotation is healthy again, the Padres will have to play a couple of months without Fernando Tatis Jr. So on Opening Day, I want to see how Yu Darvish looks after going 1-8 (6.16 ERA) in the second half. I want to see how new manager Bob Melvin sets up his late-game bullpen. I want to see if Ha-Seong Kim can not only fill in for Tatis but hit like he did in Korea after struggling in his debut season. I want to see which Manny Machado shows up. The Padres begin with 14 games against the Diamondbacks, Giants, Rangers and Pirates — a golden opportunity to get off to a hot start and put 2021’s disappointment behind them. Joon Lee: I’m with David on this one. The Padres are at a fascinating inflection point in the tenure of AJ Preller with the injury of Tatis and the level of financial investment in this team’s core. According to multiple sources, the Padres club chemistry suffered under Jayce Tingler, so the addition of Melvin will completely shake up the team’s locker room dynamics.
