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Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Yankees open the 2025 season against the Milwaukee Brewers at home for a three-game series starting on Thursday...

Preview

Opening Day

Opening Day is always a fun time. The Yankee Stadium faithful will enjoy a day game while seeing their new Yankees for the first time. Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and others will get a taste of what it will be like to don the pinstripes and play at Yankee Stadium. Hopefully, they give the crowd plenty to cheer about this weekend.

Old friends in new places

One of the biggest moves the Yankees made this offseason was trading LHP Nestor Cortes for reliever Devin Williams. Cortes was a big part of the Yankees rotation the last few seasons and he's scheduled to start the second game of the series on Saturday. The Bronx crowd should give Cortes a nice ovation for his time in pinstripes, but once the first pitch is thrown all courtesies will be gone.

The same goes for the Brewers, who helped develop Williams. The All-Star reliever will likely be used during this series, and how he performs should show that allowing that Pete Alonso homer in the Wild Card round is behind him.

New friends in new places

The offense will look a lot different without Juan Soto manning left field. The Yankees pivoted by trading for Bellinger and signing Goldschmidt and other players to prevent more runs from being scored on them. But how about their offense?

The offense will be less potent but they can show they can still get the job done with a big offensive performance. Bellinger gets acquainted with the short porch in right, while Austin Wells and Ben Rice get re-acquainted. Goldschmidt spraying base hits all over the field would give the fans a reason to forget all about Soto.

Carlos Rodon setting the tone

The Opening Day start was probably saved for Gerrit Cole, but elbow surgery will sideline the ace this season. Enter Carlos Rodon.

The southpaw has had an up-and-down tenure with the Yanks so far, and while he's technically the team's third-best arm, he will take the mound on Thursday thanks to the rotation's schedule. But this could be a great spot for Rodon, who is familiar with the stadium and has pitched on Opening Day before.

This could also be the time to set the tone for the rotation this weekend. Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt are all unavailable due to injury, but Rodon could start the 2025 season on the right foot for newcomer Max Fried and the other arms.

Enter Jasson Dominguez

This isn't Dominguez's first game at Yankee Stadium, but this time feels different. It's Dominguez's time and the Yankees are happy to give their prospect the runway to navigate his way to becoming an everyday major league player.

We shouldn't expect too much, but looking comfortable at the plate and -- more importantly -- competent in left field will give the fans and team hope that they have hit on this youngster.

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Austin Wells

The second-year catcher was scalding this spring (five home runs) and will likely hit leadoff. I can see that hot spring spilling over into the regular season especially now that Wells is comfortable playing defense and managing a pitching staff that he can now focus on the offensive end, where his potential is higher.

Which Yankees pitcher will have the best start?

Max Fried

While he hasn't been confirmed for a start this weekend, if Fried does go he'll show why New York paid the largest contract to a left-hander in MLB history.

In five career starts against the Brewers, Fried has a 2.67 ERA.

Which Brewers player will be a thorn in Yankees' side?

Christian Yelich

The former NL MVP doesn't have much experience at Yankee Stadium (three games) but has always been a potent offensive threat -- and was raking this spring (.353/.389/1.124), launching three home runs. That production and that can carry over into March/April, when the 33-year-old is historically good.

Armed with new approach, Webb ready to lead Giants again in 2025 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

CINCINNATI — The pitch started on the inside half of the plate and zeroed in on Shohei Ohtani’s back knee. As he took it for a ball, Ohtani straightened up as if the pitch was going to hit him, and then he stepped out of the box to recalibrate for a few seconds. Patrick Bailey tipped his glove at Logan Webb, who took a glance up at the scoreboard.

The score bug registered it as a four-seamer, and why wouldn’t it. Webb loves his straight fastball even if his pitching coaches tell him not to throw it, and he smiles when mentioning it in postgame interviews. But the numbers were off, not just with that pitch, but with others in that game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The velocity was lower and the spin rates were higher, and Statcast later caught on. Webb had added a cutter to his repertoire, and this spring there was no keeping it a secret. 

What started out as an experiment to try and give a different look to Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy has turned into an intriguing part of Webb’s pitch mix. The sinker and changeup always will be his bread and butter, but this spring he showed more variety. A few weeks ago, in one of his few Cactus League starts with available Statcast data, Webb threw 13 cutters, including several to right-handed hitters. Later in camp, after a changeup-heavy start, he joked that he had to focus on not falling in love with the cutter.

“I feel good throwing it,” he said. “I think it’s getting to the point where I can be confident in it and kind of know I can throw it to any guy. That’s the big thing, knowing you can throw it to any hitter at any time. I think it’s been good so far … now it’s just part of the scouting (report), right? It’s every hitter, it’s righties and lefties. If you offer the chance to throw it, I’ll throw it. I’m excited to keep throwing it and keep messing around with it.”

The pitch moves in on lefties and away from righties, giving a much different look from his sinker and changeup, and the hope is that it keeps left-handers from diving out over the plate. Far too often last season, it seemed hitters could narrow their focus against Webb, but it wasn’t just because his two main pitches move the same way. They also got far too close in the MPH column at times. 

Webb’s changeup can get up to the 89-90 range, while his sinker can be 91-92. This spring, there was an emphasis on widening the gap. Webb was pleased to regularly see one of the game’s best off-speed pitches registering at 85 mph. 

“I think I’ve thrown a couple of 83s,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever really done that.”

It’ll be a different look, and Webb is hopeful that makes a difference. He was sixth in Cy Young voting in 2024 and led the National League in innings for a second straight year, but he said he wasn’t very happy with his season overall. His FIP dropped year over year, but his ERA and WHIP were higher in 2024 than in 2023, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was just about cut in half. 

The most notable dip was with his changeup, with hitters posting a .275 average and .411 slugging percentage against the pitch after going .225 and .309 in 2023. Webb responded by cutting his usage, but that’s not ideal. A lot of last season wasn’t quite what he wanted. 

“I think a lot of it had to do with the team didn’t win, and I was frustrated about that,” he said. “But myself, I look back at some games that I let get away and we could have won and it could be the margin of error. Maybe if we won those games we would have had a better chance of getting back into the playoffs. It’s knowing that if it’s a tie game or if you’re winning, you keep it that way. I think the best guys do that, and I think I can do better at that.”

The most visible changes this spring came when Webb was on the mound, but the time behind the scenes was just as important. Now in year seven, he wants to be better at preparing for starts. It wasn’t an issue before, but the hope is that some additional tweaks lead to more consistency.

Asked how he can get better off the field, Webb smiled. He pointed to the end of his row of lockers, where Justin Verlander’s jersey was hanging. 

“That guy,” he said. 

It’s a high bar, but one Webb is hopeful he can reach. He has become known as one of the game’s best workhorses, but there’s more in the tank for the 28-year-old. 

“I definitely think there are some goals. I would like to win the Cy Young, and 200 strikeouts is a thing that I haven’t done yet. That would be cool,” he said. “I think it’s just about going out there and competing and knowing that I had to get better in my scouting, I had to get better before the game and in between my starts. That’s what’s fun about playing. The more you play, the more you learn. That’s been the biggest thing for me.”

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Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Mets and Astros open the regular season with a three-game series in Houston beginning on Thursday at 4:10 p.m. on SNY.

Preview

How will Clay Holmes' stuff translate?

It's really hard to take what you see in spring training at face value. At the same time, it's impossible to ignore how dominant Holmes looked this spring as he transitioned from reliever to starter.

In 19.0 innings pitched, Holmes posted a 0.93 ERA. And he often made hitters look foolish, including in his final spring start this past Friday when he fanned eight batters over 5.1 shoutout frames.

But the ultimate test for Holmes will come when he takes the ball for the Mets on Opening Day against an Astros lineup that is a bit weaker than it was in 2024 but still strong.

Needing an expanded arsenal to be able to go through opposing lineups twice or three times per game, Holmes added a "kick changeup" that he deployed with lots of success during Grapefruit League play.

The changeup and a four-seamer Holmes is looking to refine will add two more pitches to a repertoire that included his daunting sinking fastball, a sweeper, and a slider last season.

With Sean Manaea out until the end of April and Frankie Montas likely out until June, Holmes excelling in his new role would go a long way for the Mets in the early going.

First real look at the Mets' offense with Juan Soto

We got a bit of a sneak peek at the Mets' lineup during the latter part of spring training, but that was with players basically going through the motions as they worked out the kinks ahead of the regular season.

Now, it starts for real.

And right in the middle of things will be Soto, who will be sandwiched between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in a batting order that will feature Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo right behind the top three.

While Francisco Alvarez will likely be out until the end of April or a bit longer, New York should have plenty of punch to get by until he returns, with Jesse Winker and Starling Marte expected to split designated hitter duties and Jose Siri offering some serious pop in center field.

A wild card in the offense early on could be Brett Baty, who is coming off a torrid spring at the plate and is in line to get the bulk of the action at second base while Jeff McNeil is out.

How will Edwin Diaz fare?

There has been lots of consternation lately about Diaz, specifically when it comes to his velocity. And I'm not sure why.

For most of spring training, Diaz sat around 95-96 mph with his fastball and touched 97 mph. That led to a number of people worrying about his velo, even though Diaz's average fastball last season was 97.5 mph -- which put him in the 94th percentile in baseball.

Diaz not dialing it all the way up this spring really shouldn't be surprising since he has nothing to prove. That wasn't the case last spring, when he was returning after missing the entire 2023 season due to a knee injury and had to prove to himself that he was still ... himself.

It should also be pointed out that Diaz has seemingly intentionally added and subtracted fastball velocity throughout his career (it averaged 97.3 mph in 2018, 99.1 mph in 2022, and 97.5 mph in 2024).

Additionally, Diaz was at his high-octane best during the 2024 MLB postseason, including rearing back for 101 mph to strike out Kyle Schwarber while clinching the NLDS at Citi Field.

The new-look Astros

The Astros went through some big changes during the offseason.

First, they traded superstar outfielder Kyle Tucker to the Cubs after determining that they wouldn't be able to sign Tucker when he hits free agency after this season.

Then, after attempting to re-sign him, they lost cornerstone third baseman Alex Bregman to the Red Sox in free agency.

While retooling its offense this winter, Houston signed first baseman Christian Walker and added infielder Isaac Paredes (who was acquired in the Tucker trade).

The Astros are also moving second baseman Jose Altuve to left field -- a wild late-career change for the future Hall-of-Famer.

Houston still has elite closer Josh Hader and a very good top of the starting rotation that is led by Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown, but their offense and defense are going to look radically different this season.

Beware of Yordan Alvarez

The Astros should still have a pretty potent lineup -- especially if promising infielder Jeremy Peña can harness his potential -- but Tucker and Bregman being gone should make it easier for opposing teams to pitch around all-world slugger Yordan Alvarez.

Alvarez has been a one-man wrecking crew over the last three seasons, slashing .303/.401/.587 with 103 home runs and 280 RBI over 396 games.

Last season saw Alvarez post an OPS+ of 172 in a career-high 552 at-bats.

The damage Alvarez can do is serious, and the Mets should do their best to not let him beat them.

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Pete Alonso

The Crawford Boxes in left field should be an inviting target for Alonso, who hits most of his home runs that way.

Which Mets pitcher will have the best start?

Clay Holmes

Holmes' upside as a starter is real, and he'll start showing it on Opening Day.

Which Astros player will be a thorn in the Mets' side?

Isaac Paredes

Paredes has pop and makes a lot of contact -- a good mix for his new home ballpark.