The Dodgers will kick off the 2025 campaign without their star shortstop … Mookie Betts will miss the opening series with an illness — which was so bad the former A.L. MVP dropped 15 lbs!

Manager Dave Roberts made the announcement Monday in Tokyo … saying that while Betts has begun to feel better, he’s still trying to get his strength back, and rehydrate from the couple of days he was ill.

“When you’re dehydrated, that’s what opens a person up to soft tissue injuries. We’re very mindful of that,” the skipper said, making it clear he didn’t want to risk injury with Mookie.

Roberts said the team has considered sending Betts back home to Los Angeles where he could continue to recover. He also admitted if the organization knew how long the illness would linger, they would’ve kept Mookie back in the City of Angels, rather than bringing him across the world.

Despite the bad news, the vibes are impeccable ahead of L.A.-Chicago … going down in Tokyo. Just the workout alone drew about 10,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome.

Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner are expecting another baby!!

The model shared she’s pregnant with their third child on her Instagram on Monday.

She posted a carousel of photos showing off her baby bump, as well as photos of her 4-year-old son, Levi, and 19-month-old son, Elijah. She captioned the announcement … “Three’s a party 🥹🫶🎉”

In an interview with Vogue, she said … “Family is everything to me. Josh and I are incredibly grateful for this blessing.”

Karlie and Joshua got married June 2018 in a small Jewish ceremony in upstate New York.

Drake‘s trying to have his cake and eat it too … according to his music label UMG, which says his whole lawsuit over “Not Like Us” is really just sour grapes because Kendrick Lamar buried him in their rap beef.

Universal Music Group filed docs Monday in federal court, calling out Drake for his part in the diss track battle that surrounded the release of “Not Like Us.” According to the label, “Drake encouraged the feud. For example, when he felt that Lamar was taking too long to respond, Drake released a second recording in which he goaded Lamar to continue the public rap battle.”

Remember, Drake is suing his label for releasing the track, claiming it did so knowing its “certified pedophile” line was false and defamatory.

UMG says Drake’s insults included claims Kendrick is a domestic abuser, and Kendrick’s biz partner is the real father of the rapper’s son. The label says Drake’s only suing “after losing the rap battle.”

Drake’s own label says his lawsuit “disregards the other Drake and Lamar diss tracks that surrounded ‘Not Like Us’ as well as the conventions of the diss track genre, and, thus, critically ignores the context of the dispute.”

Translation: Ya live by the sword, ya die by the sword, Drake!

UMG flat-out denies “Not Like Us” is defamatory, especially considering the context of the rap war that was raging between both rappers — who are both UMG artists — and, it wants a judge to dismiss the whole lawsuit.