The Dodgers already have starters for season curtain raiser in Korea
Manager of the Californian team, Dave Roberts, revealed the pitchers who will take the mound during next month’s expedition to the Asian country.
The MLB spring training schedule gets underway on Thursday but for the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts is already looking ahead. In a meeting with media outlets who cover the day-to-day life of the Californian organization, Roberts announced the two men who will be in charge of the opening day home-and-home series fixtures against the Padres at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on 20-21 March - the first ever regular season MLB games to be staged in South Korea.
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As part of its internationalization plan, MLB scheduled a couple of Dodgers games against the Padres on Asian soil. The NL West rivalry will move a few thousand miles west, but both games promise the same intensity and atmosphere experienced at Dodger Stadium or Petco Park. For the trip, Roberts has already selected his men who will climb the hill. Dodgers newcomers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow will be responsible for the first pitches for the Dodgers.
Last weekend it was reported that Yamamoto would be one of the two starting pitchers and today Roberts confirmed that adding that Tyler Glasnow would be the other. “It’s “a safe bet” that the Dodgers will have Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow (in some order) starting their two season openers in Korea,” Dave Roberts told the outlet The Athletic. “Obviously things can change. It’s two regular-season games. But it’s just two games. I think it’s fair to say that’s our hope. But I don’t think I am or we are beholden to that if it doesn’t make sense”.
Yamamoto joined the Southern California organization at the end of December after being pursued by a large number of teams. The Dodgers managed to convince the Japanese pitcher with a $325 million, 12-year deal and the presence in the clubhouse of ShoheI Ohtani.
While Glasnow landed at Dodger Stadium as a result of a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays that included Ryan Pepiot and Jonny DeLuca. Before Christmas, he signed a five-year contract extension worth $136.5 million.
Ohtani shining in spring training
It is still unclear when Yamamoto will pitch in the Cactus League, where the Dodgers will begin their spring training schedule this Thursday with two practice games lined up against the Padres then another warm-up game against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.
Less than eight months after undergoing surgery to repair his pitching elbow, Shohei Ohtani, MLB’s only bidirectional player, hit his first home run against real-speed pitches. After striking out a couple of times, the Japanese hit a pitch from reliever J.P. Feyereisen that ended up as a souvenir at Camelback Ranch.
GM Roberts told the media afterwards, “Some people would rather play in a Cactus League game because it gets their adrenaline going more. Some people feel that if you’re playing on a back field, you can get what you put into it. I’m like most of you guys. I’m still learning Shohei. But there’s got to be a lot of trust on my side. If he needs more at-bats or wants to play in more games, we can acquiesce and I’m fine with it. I think certain players, certainly a guy like Shohei, knowing what the finish line looks like and then how do we get there I think is important to him. I think it makes us all feel better on how we get to that point.”