Major League Baseball has announced its first half schedule for Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, headlined by the Opening Week game of the Atlanta Braves taking on the San Diego Padres. Here are the five best matchups on the slate.

The Yankees will face their crosstown rivals, the New York Mets, in their first Sunday Night Baseball appearance on May 18. It will be the finale of a three-game series which will bring former Yankees’ right fielder Juan Soto back to the Bronx for the first time since he spurned them for the Mets. It is part of ESPN’s “Rivalry Week.”

ESPN, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced its 2025 early-season Sunday Night Baseball schedule on Wednesday. The 36th season of ESPN’s exclusive Major League Baseball game of the week begins on March 30 when the San Diego Padres and Fernando Tatís Jr.

Once again, the Atlanta Braves will get a couple slots in prime time to start the 2025 season with the potential for more games later in the year

ESPN announced its Sunday Night Baseball broadcast schedule through June 1, and also a couple of games beyond that, as well as the Little League Classic in August (Mariners vs. Mets). The Cubs will be on SNB twice in April.

Baseball” schedule for the first half of the 2025 season includes the Los Angeles Dodgers featured in five of the games. In addition, they could be schedule for more later in the year, as happened multiple times in 2024.