Last week, on the extra off day in the All-Star break, Major League Baseball released their tentative 2025 schedule while I was away in Amsterdam. For the third year in a row, MLB is keeping with a balanced schedule, playing 52 games against division opponents, 64 games against non-division opponents in the same league, and 46 interleague games, with series against every team in the opposite league. With the White Sox about to cement the worst season in franchise history and the Cubs trying to figure out what went wrong on their way back to contention, the 2025 season looks like it could be a long one for the city of Chicago. So, for one day, at least, let’s turn our attention to next summer for both teams.
The White Sox celebrate the 125th anniversary of the franchise, opening their season on March 27 at home against the Angels, kicking off a six-game homestand that also features the Twins. They will make their first visit to Sacramento, the new home of the A’s, in the last weekend of April.
The interleague schedule sees the Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Padres coming to Guaranteed Rate Field, while the White Sox will go on the road to face the Pirates, Reds, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Rockies, and Nationals. The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a three-game weekend series at Wrigley Field in mid-May followed by another weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field the last weekend in July.
After wrapping up the home portion of the schedule in mid-September against the Orioles and Padres, the White Sox wrap up the 2025 season on the east coast, battling the Yankees and the Nationals to finish up the year.
On the north side, the Cubs head to Japan to open their season on March 18 with a two-game tilt against the Dodgers in Tokyo. They return to the US to face the Diamondbacks on March 27 before heading to Sacramento for the first time to face the A’s. They open up the home portion of the 2025 season on April 4 against the Padres.
Aside from the A’s, the Cubs will head out on the road to face the Twins, Angels, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers, while the Mariners, Orioles, Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals will be coming to Wrigley Field.
Only ten of their 25 games in September are against their NL Central rivals, which could make a difference should the Cubs find themselves in contention. They end the year with a six-game homestand, facing the Mets and the Cardinals.
With a little more than an hour left before the trade deadline, word came down that the White Sox had traded Jake Burger to the Marlins for Jake Eder, the team’s fourth-ranked prospect. Burger, selected by the White Sox in the first round of the 2018 draft, missed three minor league seasons between 2018 and 2020 due to two torn Achilles tendons and the pandemic before making his major league debut in 2021. He has broken out as an offensive force this season, hitting 25 home runs, which puts him in a tie for third place in the American League. Defensively, he is probably fated to be a designated hitter unless he makes major improvements.
