The 2024 regular season has already been unique for the Los Angeles Dodgers in ways they’ve never seen in the past — an opening series in South Korea, a leadoff batter hitting the cover off the baseball and a potential gambling scandal with scores of unanswered questions.

The Dodgers open a three-game exhibition Freeway series against the Angels on Sunday night with an identical lineup that notched them an Opening Day win in Seoul. It will be interesting to see if any of the early trends we saw in South Korea carry over to the play on home soil.

Obviously, it’s a long season, and it could take a while for the character and the chemistry of this highly talented team to develop. However, here are a few things to watch in the days leading up to Opening Day 2.0 against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, March 28.

Ippei Mizuhara

The Dodgers have one of the most skilled public relation departments in the business. More importantly, the team has actual first-hand experience handling player distractions at the highest levels in recent years — see Julio Urias and Trevor Bauer. Still, the situation surrounding superstar Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is a lot different than the fires that the front office is accustomed to putting out.

The big problem here is that Ohtani and agent Nez Balelo have typically operated as a separate entity from the Los Angeles Angels in the past when it comes to public relations and handling the press. There have already been two different stories surfacing — one that Ohtani willingly paid Mizuhara’s gambling debts and another that Mizuhara stole money from Ohtani.

Aside from an official MLB investigation, the Dodgers could very well take hold of the entire situation by the horns soon. Fans may never know the actual truth, but one thing is for sure — the whole story is about to burst over the next several days. Stay tuned.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto

As the highest paid pitcher in baseball history, fans seemingly expected Yoshinobu Yamamoto to arrive on the mound wearing a superman cape and dazzling opposing hitters with his ridiculous spin rate. Instead, the Padres roughed him up for five runs in the first inning of Opening Day in Seoul, working their way through the entire batting order in the process.

Yamamoto is slated to start Game 2 against the Cardinals on Friday after Tyler Glasnow handles the series opener on Thursday. Skipper Dave Roberts doesn’t seem to appear worried about Yamamoto yet, stating that “we just have to get back to refining the delivery, tightening up the command, and he’ll be fine.”

Update:

Mookie’s Offense

Ohtani’s arrival in the Dodgers’ camp may have been a good thing in more ways than one. Besides offering Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith a bit of protection at the top of the batting order, Ohtani’s presence may have already lit Mookie’s fire, specifically from the standpoint of team competitiveness.

Mookie has shown early that he’s ready to play and spearhead what might be the most talented offense the team has had in recent history. Betts went 6-for-9 with a double, a homer and seven RBI in the Seoul series in what could be the start to his most prolific season ever. It’s only his first two games, but if he improves even slightly upon last season’s numbers, he might end up running away with the 2024 NL MVP crown.

Infield Defense

The defense of the infield has been a topic we’ve been concerned about all winter the whole way through Cactus League play. Forget about Betts needing to adjust at shortstop and Gavin Lux having to settle back in at second base. The dragon has already reared its ugly head with Max Muncy at third base.

The front office crew was aware of the potential problems and apparently thought they could somehow compensate by an overpowering offense or by having Muncy make a few adjustments at the hot corner. The problem is that the team can’t really slide Muncy over to DH this year to give him time to cool off with his glove. Fortunately, Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor are around to provide a few contingency plans if things get any worse.