Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the NCAA Tournament taking place is that the 2025 Major League Baseball season is on the horizon. Opening Day is Thursday—even though the Los Angeles Dodgers swept a two-game Tokyo Series versus the Chicago Cubs last week—and lots is at stake for individual players, distinguished managers, and franchises.
Here are the MLB milestones to keep an eye on.
Shohei Ohtani: Three Straight MVP awards
The superstar will finally get to showcase his two-way brilliance in a Dodgers uniform this season. He’s already one of 12 players in MLB history with three Most Valuable Player awards, but as a back-to-back winner, Ohtani is aiming for a nearly unprecedented third straight trophy. Only Barry Bonds, who won four straight from 2001–04, has won at least three in a row, but much of Bonds’s accomplishments have an unofficial asterisk on them for an obvious reason.
Mike Trout: 400 Home Runs
After the 2019 season, Trout was 115 home runs away from reaching 400 for his career. He had hit 117 over his prior three seasons, so most expected him to reach the mark in 2022. However, we’re now in 2025, and Trout is still
22 homers shy of 400, thanks to various injuries. He’s hoping that a move to a corner outfield position prevents more of those injuries and keeps his bat in the lineup, as you can’t reach a milestone or set records from the trainer’s table. Trout hitting 22 homers may seem like something he could do before the All-Star break, but he’s hit more than 18 home runs just once over the last five seasons.
Bruce Bochy: Games and Wins
It’s not just players who have history on the horizon but managers, too, and Bochy is all but assured to rise up two managerial lists this season. As long as he completes the season with the Texas Rangers, he’ll surpass Bobby Cox for the
fourth-most games managed in MLB history. While that service time accomplishment is nice, Bochy will be much prouder of his rise up the all-time wins list. With just 24 more victories, he’ll top, first, Dusty Baker, then Sparky Anderson, slotting Bochy at sixth all-time, with passing Joe Torre for the top five possible in 2026.
Clayton Kershaw: 3,000 Strikeouts
After offseason toe surgery, Kershaw isn’t expected to make his season debut until May or June. But that should still provide him enough innings to reach the 32 strikeouts
needed for 3,000 career Ks. He would become the 20th member of the club, but what would mean even more to Kershaw is that he will get to do it in one uniform. Just four other pitchers in the history of the game have recorded 3,000 strikeouts with one team—Walter Johnson (Senators), Bob Gibson (Cardinals), Steve Carlton (Phillies), John Smoltz (Braves)—and Kershaw would become the first to do it with the Dodgers.
Jose Ramirez: 250/250 Club
Last year, Ramirez reached the 250-homer plateau, and now he’s just seven stolen bases from reaching 250 career stolen bases. That would make him the 24th player in MLB history to be a part of
the 250/250 club, but his doing it as a third baseman would put him in a class of his own. He would become the first primarily third baseman in history to reach 250/250—and at 32 years old, and coming off a 39-HR, 41-SB season—Ramirez becoming the ninth member of the 300/300 club could be something worth monitoring in 2026.
Braves: 11,000 Losses
Not every milestone has to be something celebratory, as the Braves could realize this year. They enter the season with
10,949 franchise losses, making them 51 shy of becoming the second franchise to reach 11,000 defeats (the Philadelphia Phillies have 11,326). Excluding the pandemic-affected 2020 season and the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Braves have lost at least 51 games every year since 1899. So, Loss No. 11,000 is all but guaranteed.
Giancarlo Stanton: 2,000 Strikeouts
Stanton is the active leader in both home runs (452) and strikeouts (1,963), and while he ranks 51st all-time in homers, he’s much higher on the career strikeouts list.
He has the ninth-most in history and is just nine Ks away from surpassing Justin Upton (1,971) for eighth place. Stanton could strike out nine times in a given week, and then his focus would be on entering the 2K Club. Just seven players in MLB history have struck out at least 2,000 times, and as long as Stanton is healthy enough to get the requisite plate appearances, he will expand that club by one in 2025.
Kenley Jansen: All-time Saves
Now with the Los Angeles Angels, Jansen is with his fifth team in four years, but he’s still one of the best closers in the game. He notched 27 saves a year ago but has at least 32 saves in eight of the last 10 full seasons, making the 32 he needs to surpass Lee Smith (478) a possibility. Doing that would position Jansen
third on the all-time saves list but still well behind the only members of the 600-save club: Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601).
