Welcome to The Sporting Tribune Podcast Network and a new episode of The Sporting Tribune Today, our every-weekday show on sports in Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.<\/p>\n
Host\u00a0Grant Mona\u00a0welcomes you to a special season-preview edition of\u00a0The Sporting Tribune Today. With the Cactus League in the rearview and the Freeway Series wrapping up, we\u2019re looking at a Dodgers squad on the precipice of history\u2014and the young infielder who just secured the most talked-about roster spot in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
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Segment One: The Quest for the Three-Peat\u00a0Grant dives into the headlines as the\u00a0Los Angeles Dodgers\u00a0prepare to open the 2026 season against the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n
The \u201cObvious\u201d Greatness:\u00a0With a projected lineup featuring three future Hall of Famers\u2014Shohei Ohtani,\u00a0Freddie Freeman, and\u00a0Mookie Betts\u2014the Dodgers are the betting favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the 1998\u20132000 Yankees.<\/p>\n
The Ohtani MVP Prediction:\u00a0Grant reacts to the buzz surrounding Ohtani, who enters the season fully healthy and ready to dominate both on the mound and at the plate. Is a fifth MVP trophy already a foregone conclusion?<\/p>\n
Rotation Realities:\u00a0A breakdown of the opening rotation:\u00a0Yoshinobu Yamamoto\u00a0gets the ball for Opening Day, followed by\u00a0Emmet Sheehan,\u00a0Tyler Glasnow,\u00a0Roki Sasaki, and finally Ohtani. Grant discusses how Dave Roberts is navigating injuries to Blake Snell and Gavin Stone to keep this \u201csuper-rotation\u201d intact.<\/p>\n
Segment Two: Final Word from the Freeway Series\u00a0We head to the locker room following the Dodgers\u2019 spring-training finale against the\u00a0Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n
The Decision at Second Base:\u00a0Grant brings you audio from\u00a0Dave Roberts\u00a0explaining the \u201ctoughest decision of the spring\u201d\u2014choosing\u00a0Alex Freeland\u00a0over\u00a0Hyeseong Kim\u00a0for the Opening Day roster. Roberts discusses why he prioritized Freeland\u2019s \u201cat-bat quality\u201d and defensive versatility while sending Kim to Triple-A for everyday reps.<\/p>\n
The Rookie\u2019s Dream:\u00a0We hear from\u00a0Alex Freeland, who admits he had \u201cthe chills\u201d when Roberts gave him the news. Despite a statistically quiet spring (.111 AVG), Freeland talks about the mental adjustments he made and what it means to fulfill a lifelong dream of making an Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n
Spring Finale Highlights: A quick look at the Dodgers\u2019 dominant 10-run inning against the Angels on Sunday, headlined by a Shohei Ohtani bases-clearing double that signaled the offense is officially \u201cregular-season ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to The Sporting Tribune Podcast Network and a new episode of The Sporting Tribune Today, our every-weekday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2406],"tags":[22432,5,114,1560,39,7907,815,40169,1523,1393,1165,4332,4333,774,56,57,3224,4331,4,1526,110,468,82100,2245,786,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-641871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-alex-freeland","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blake-snell","11":"tag-dave-roberts","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-emmet-sheehan","14":"tag-freddie-freeman","15":"tag-freeway-series","16":"tag-gavin-stone","17":"tag-hyeseong-kim","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-dodgers","20":"tag-ladodgers","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-angels","23":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-losangelesdodgers","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-mookie-betts","28":"tag-roki-sasaki","29":"tag-shohei-ohtani","30":"tag-sporting-tribune-podcast-network","31":"tag-the-diamondbacks","32":"tag-tyler-glasnow","33":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116287451245369427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}