No surprises here, as the reigning NL Cy Young award winner gets the nod to start the season in San Diego.
It’s getting to be about that time, y’all. Opening Day (for everybody not named the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers) is a week from Thursday, which means that it’s time to start figuring out who’s going to be starting in order to get the ball rolling on the regular season on the right foot.
With apologies to all 4 of y’all in Braves Country who figured that someone else would somehow be the Opening Day starter, I think we all knew that it was going to be a given as to who would be taking the mound on that Thursday afternoon in San Diego. On Monday morning, the Atlanta Braves confirmed everybody’s predictions by naming Chris Sale as this year’s Opening Day starter.
As I’ve been insinuating so far, this comes as little-to-no surprise. The only way that there would’ve been any type of intrigue was if Spencer Strider was able to heal as quickly and effectively as Wolverine from Marvel Comics. Otherwise, this was Chris Sale’s job to lose and he certainly didn’t lose it. Sale’s had a productive spring training, he’s healthy and he appears ready to go. This will now be six Opening Day starts for Sale but this will only be his first Opening Day appearance since 2019. There’s a reason he won Comeback Player of the Year, y’all.
The Braves are set to start their season in San Diego against the Padres on Thursday, March 27 at 4:10 pm ET. Chris Sale was unable to pitch in San Diego during the NL Wild Card Series, so here’s hoping that he’ll take this opportunity to leave his mark on the town and let everybody know what he could’ve brought to the table last October. I’m certainly looking forward to it.