Opening Day seemed unreachable a little more than a month ago, when Major League Baseball postponed the start of the season as its lockout lingered.
The opening of the season is accompanied by romanticized projections of what’s possible in many places, and that clearly is the case locally. The Angels and Dodgers, however, have some of the best players in the league – their rosters feature winners of eight MVP awards,The Angels get started Thursday at home against the Houston Astros at 6:38 p.m.
The Angels have a lineup that can be dangerous, but they need the player who already has 310 home runs at 30 years old on the field far more than he has been in recent seasons.Freeman, the 2020 National League MVP who finished in the top 10 in voting five of the past six seasons, seemed like a lock to return to the Atlanta Braves after helping the only MLB team he’d known win the World Series.
One thing the Dodgers know is they won’t have to face Freeman, who had two home runs and a .444 on-base percentage against them in the National League Championship Series in October, in this season’s playoffs.With his prowess hitting and pitching, Ohtani won the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award last season, only the 16th person given the honor. He almost certainly won’t receive that again, but a repeat of everything else he achieved in 2021 seems within reach.
For now, it means the Angels can get even more of Ohtani at the plate than they had last year, when he hit 46 home runs en route to his AL MVP award and Ruthian comparisons.The Dodgers have a future Hall of Famer in their starting rotation, but Clayton Kershaw is several years and far more innings past his prime when he won the NL Cy Young Award three times in four seasons.
Walker Buehler will open the season for the Dodgers and should continue to be their ace, and Ohtani has that role for the Angels. Both teams will need a lot more, though each is in good shape if it can get games to the bullpen.Third baseman Anthony Rendon was key to the Washington Nationals’ World Series championship in 2019 and was solid in his first season with the Angels. But he was limited to 58 games in 2021 because of injuries and didn’t play after July 4.