St. Louis Cardinals 2025 home opener: Date, time, and what to expect

Major League Baseball's offseason is in its final few weeks. For the St. Louis Cardinals, pitchers and catchers report in less than 10 days on February 12th. Full-squad workouts begin on February 17th, and the club's first spring training game is on February 22nd against the Miami Marlins in Palm Beach, Florida.

The Cardinals remain one of the last teams to make an acquisition for their major-league roster. The bulk of the offseason has been spent on finding a dance partner for third baseman Nolan Arenado and adding to a thin coaching staff. Chaim Bloom has made several additions in the front office already, and people like Matt Pierpont and Rob Cerfolio will make major differences in the player development pipeline.

Here are dates, times, and what to expect for the St. Louis Cardinals' 2025 home opener.

The Cardinals get to play their first game of the year at Busch Stadium after opening the 2024 season in Los Angeles against the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. This year, the Cardinals will host the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, March 27th, at 3:15 P.M. CDT. It will be broadcast on the newly re-branded FanDuel Sports Network with Chip Caray as the play-by-play voice. His partner won't be Jim Edmonds, as Edmonds was recently dismissed from FanDuel.

In the past when Opening Day starts at 3:15, festivities in and around Busch Stadium have kicked off as early as 10:00 A.M. with an Opening Day Pep Rally at Ballpark Village. Gates to Busch have typically opened at noon, and batting practice happens for the next two hours for both teams. An official schedule for Opening Day 2025 has not been released as of publication.

As is customary with the St. Louis Cardinals' Opening Day, the Clydesdales, Hall of Famers in red jackets, Fredbird, front office members, and players will be introduced in style. We can expect the classic red Ford Mustang convertibles, the Budweiser wagon pulled by Clydesdales, some of the franchise's best players, and hopefully, a victory. Fans will receive a 2025 magnet schedule on Opening Day.

After an off day on Friday, March 28th, in case of a rainout on Thursday, the Cardinals and Twins will square up for two more games on Saturday, March 29th, at 1:15 P.M. and Sunday, March 30th, at 1:15 P.M. Fans who attend those games will receive an Alec Burleson Ford Truck Bobblehead and an adult Cardinals long-sleeved hooded pullover. A full list of promotional items can be found here.

The Cardinals' home opener may be one of the most sparsely attended in recent memory. The club dipped below 3 million fans in attendance last year for the first time in 18 years last year, and fan frustration and apathy are reaching all-time highs.

Miles Mikolas drew the season opener in Los Angeles last year, and Lance Lynn was given the home opener. The Cardinals lost to the Dodgers in the season opener, but they defeated the Miami Marlins 8-5 in the home opener last year.

Sonny Gray is likely to be named this year's home opener starting pitcher as he enters his second season with St. Louis. Gray, 35, finished 2024 with a 13-9 record, a 3.84 ERA, and 203 strikeouts in 166.1 innings.

The offseason has been uninspiring thus far, but there are few regular season events that rival the home opener at Busch Stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals. It's the start to a new season and a new chance for postseason baseball in St. Louis.