The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs will kick off the 2025 MLB season at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Tuesday, March 18. The game is scheduled for 6 a.m. ET and will be broadcast on FOX, SportsNet LA and Marquee Sports Network.
For my Dodgers vs. Cubs Opening Day MLB player props, I'll be looking into Shota Imanaga, Tommy Edman, Michael Busch.
Let's dive into my MLB player prop picks for Dodgers vs Cubs on Tuesday.
MLB Props for Tuesday, March 18
- Shota Imanaga Over 14.5 Outs Recorded (-120, DraftKings)
- Tommy Edman Over 0.5 Singles (- 115, bet365)
- Michael Busch Under 0.5 Total Bases (+105, bet365)
Shota Imanaga gets to return to his native Japan for the opening game of the Tokyo Series. The 31-year-old lefty had a stellar rookie campaign last year, going 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP.
However, his first assignment of the 2025 season is a tough one with the defending World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Imanaga faced the Dodgers twice last season and fared well, allowing just three earned runs in 11 innings.
While length is typically a concern for staters early in the season, Imanaga showed last year that his command leads to efficient outings and allows him to eat up innings when others would be nearing their end. He went over this total in 25 of his 29 starts last season.
Five innings seem like the minimum benchmark for Imanaga, as he built up to 75 pitches in his last Spring Training start. We should see him thrown north of that number, which will get him into the fifth inning if he remains sharp.
Since I'm expecting Imanaga to be out there for at least five innings, that points to Tommy Edman having at least two at-bats against him, and Edman has the edge in these matchups. Edman crushed left-handed pitching last season, hitting .412 with a 38 percent hard-hit rate.
Edman also saw the ball well against Imanaga last season, as he went 2 for 3 with two extra-base hits. Edman's success should continue, but with the big gaps of the Tokyo Dome, it's likely the outfielders will be deeper, and any hard-hit contact should be contained, holding Edman to a single in this one.
Lastly, we'll flip to the other side of this matchup to target the Cubs' Michael Busch. While Busch has slightly better splits against right-handed pitching, he profiles to struggle mightily against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto has a nasty selection of pitches, and last season, Busch struggled against Yamamoto's best pitch, his splitter. Busch had just .139 wOBA and a 45.5 percent whiff rate on the splitter last season.
The splitter is Yamamoto's primary weapon against lefties, throwing it over 29 percent of the time. It's safe to say that Busch will see a heavy diet of splitters, which should lead to him having a quiet day at the dish.
