2025 Major League Baseball

The 2025 Major League Baseball season was the twenty-sixth season in which the two major leagues, the National League and the American League, have been consolidated into a single entity under the authority of the Commissioner, Rob Manfred.

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The 2025 Major League Baseball season did not come with significant rule changes (there were a couple of very minor adjustments regarding defensive shifts and a runner deliberately over-running a base), contrary to previous years. However, in a harbinger of a potential major upcoming change, the challenge system on balls and strikes was tested in spring training games after having been used with success in AAA the two previous seasons. Plans to use it in regular season games at some future date remained undetermined for now, though, but seemed to be inevitable when the system was also used in the All-Star Game. Yet, there was still a lot that was different than the previous year - mainly two teams changing homes. In the case of the former Oakland Athletics, the long saga of trying to find a replacement for the Oakland Coliseum had come to an end the year before with the decision to move to team to a temporary home in West Sacramento, CA for at least two seasons while waiting for a permanent one to be built in Las Vegas, NV. Officially, the team was simply known as the "The Athletics", with no mention of its home base, while every other team was designated by its city and nickname. The second move was that of the Tampa Bay Rays, whose aging and long-decried ballpark, Tropicana Field, had been severely damaged by Hurricane Milton a few days after the final game of the 2024 season was played, and would be unavailable this year as a result; the Rays elected to play their games at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, FL, the spring training home of the New York Yankees and the home ballpark of the Class A Tampa Tarpons, with the future also murky. The Athletics were also using a converted minor league facility, Sutter Health Park.

One thing that had not changed was MLB's willingness to expand the game overseas in what was dubbed the "MLB World Tour", and this year it started with a two-game Tokyo Series played at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Champions, winning both games against the Chicago Cubs. Both teams featured high-profile Japanese stars on their rosters and the series was a tremendous success in Japan, and drew good ratings in North America in spite of the games being played at inconvenient times. Opening Day then came on March 27th with 14 games scheduled (only the Colorado Rockies and the Rays were scheduled to open their season the following day, due to the need for an extra day to get Steinbrenner Field ready). MLB continued to innovate by staging games in unusual settings, and the MLB Speedway Classic, which took place on August 2-3 (it was suspended after one inning due to adverse weather and then completed the next day), staged at the famous Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN, set a record for attendance with 91,032 paid customers.

On August 9th, an important first took place during a doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. In recent years, MLB had instigated the practice of calling up a fifth umpire from the minor leagues for doubleheaders, to ensure that the home plate umpire in each contest would get to rest during the other game. This time, the umpire called up was Jen Pawol, who had previously worked spring training games, worked as a crew chief in AAA, and been on the call-up roster for the major leagues. She became the first woman to work as an umpire during a major league game, and was also designated to work home plate the following day. While some of her rare predecessors as women umpires had faced a lot of hostility and prejudice, mentalities had thankfully evolved, and her arrival on the major league scene was greeted with enthusiasm by just about every one. With over 1,200 games of minor league experience, she was clearly well qualified for the assignment, and a large number of players and managers had had a chance to see her work in person while she was making her way up the professional ranks.

For the third straight year, attendance at major league games increased, reaching a total of 71,409,421 fans. It was also the third straight year that attendance topped 70 million, something that had not happened since 2015-2017. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres both set single-season attendance records, with L.A. drawing over 4 million fans for the first time in its history. Six teams finished with over 3 million fans in attendance.

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2025 Major League Baseball

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