Opening Day Starting Pitcher Matchups | MLB 2024
Getty Images. Pictured: Luis Castillo, Framber Valdez, Zack Wheeler, Nestor Cortes, Justin Steele.
MLB Opening Day 2024 is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, with all 30 teams in action in matchups spread throughout the day.
While the Dodgers and Padres got the season started eight days early in Korea, a key source of intrigue leading up to the official Opening Day is who will take the mound for each team.
Here is who every team chose to make the Opening Day start for the 2024 season.
MLB Opening Day Starters 2024
Freddy Peralta is the last man standing from the three-headed monster that used to include Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes. The former remains a Brewer, but will miss the 2024 season, while the latter was traded to the Baltimore Orioles during the offseason. This will be Peralta's first Opening Day start. Woodruff got the call in each of the last four seasons.
What a difference a year makes for the Mets. After employing both Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer to start the 2023 season, this year the Opening Day nod goes to Jose Quintana, who last started on Opening Day for the Chicago White Sox back in 2017.
The Angels will have a new Opening Day starting pitcher for the first time since 2021 after losing Shohei Ohtani in the offseason. They will turn to left-hander Patrick Sandoval for his first career Opening Day nod.
It was an easy call for Orioles manager Brandon Hyde with the newly acquired Corbin Burnes, particularly after 2023 ace Kyle Bradish went down with an elbow injury that will delay his start to the season.
There was at least some question as to whether Braves manager would give the Opening Day nod to Max Fried, as he has in each of the last three seasons. But the emergence of new ace Spencer Strider made this a somewhat easy call.
Aaron Nola has actually started the last six Opening Days for the Phillies, but this year manager Rob Thomson is turning to his co-ace, Zack Wheeler, who was just inked to an extension and is coming off the more successful season.
The Yankees' Gerrit Cole will miss the start of the season because of injury, so manager Aaron Boone will instead turn to Nestor Cortes, who is making his first Opening Day start.
Framber Valdez, on the other hand, is making his third-straight Opening Day start for the Astros, as he emerged as the staff ace even after the re-acquisition of Justin Verlander (who won't be ready for Opening Day).
This will be the first Opening Day start for the Tigers' Tarik Skubal, who emerged as one of the most promising young starters in baseball in the second half of last season and has generated quite a bit of preseason Cy Young hype.
The White Sox's decision was complicated by the recent trade of Dylan Cease, who started on Opening Day a year ago. Garrett Crochet has not made a start in his MLB career, but the former first-round pick has been transitioning into a starter role, and manager Pedro Grifol selected him over uninspiring options like Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Mike Soroka.
This will be the second straight Opening Day start for Minnesota's Pablo Lopez, who emerged as the clear-cut ace for the Twins last season following a trade from Miami.
The Royals will go with an exciting youngster in Cole Ragans, who joined Kansas City in a midseason trade with Texas last year and was fantastic in his 12 starts wearing the powder blue.
The young Josiah Gray will be making his first Opening Day start for the Nationals. The right-hander had an up-and-down 2023 season after coming to Washington in the deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers a few years ago.
The Reds made the somewhat surprising decision to start veteran Frankie Montas over young flamethrower Hunter Greene. Montas has made two Opening Day starts in his career — both with Oakland — and signed a free agent deal with Cincinnati this offseason after an injury-plagued tenure with the Yankees.
The Rays traded Tyler Glasnow in the offseason, and erstwhile ace Shane McClanahan is still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. That left manager Kevin Cash to pretty much chose between Zach Eflin and Aaron Civale, and he went with the trusted veteran.
For the Blue Jays, an obvious choice would be Cy Young candidate Kevin Gausman. However, with Gausman dealing with a shoulder issue during spring training, veteran Jose Berrios will get the call.
The Pirates had an easy choice this year in Mitch Keller, who emerged last season as a reliable front-end starter for the young Buccos.
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara is expected to miss the season following Tommy John surgery, so manager Skip Schumaker is turning instead to young lefty Jesus Luzardo, who remains in Miami following an offseason filled with trade rumors.
The Cardinals' decision likely came down to the veteran Miles Mikolas or offseason addition Sonny Gray. However, a spring training injury delayed Gray's ramp-up to the season, so manager Oliver Marmol will opt for Mikolas instead.
The Dodgers' decision was obviously complicated by the fact that they already played two games in Korea prior to the normal Opening Day. With a week between games, however, they are turning to Tyler Glasnow to make his second start of the season.
The Giants went with the most obvious choice in naming their ace Logan Webb as the Opening Day starter for the third consecutive season.
The Padres, like the Dodgers, had the complication of the Korea series to work around. With Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove taking the mound in Seoul, San Diego is opting to have Darvish come back for his second start of the season.
With Marcus Stroman gone in free agency during the offseason, the Cubs had an easy choice in Justin Steele, who was a Cy Young candidate a year ago and made his first All-Star team.
The Rangers have a plethora of aces on the mend, namely Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. They have another solid option, however, in last year's postseason hero Nathan Eovaldi.
The Guardians had an easy call to make in former Cy Young winner and staff ace Shane Bieber, who will make his fifth straight start on Opening Day.
The Athletics had a less-obvious choice as the projected worst team in baseball. While offseason acquisition Ross Stripling has the biggest name (relative to the rest of the roster) an biggest contract (ditto), some thought manager Mark Kotsay would pick between mainstays JP Sears or Paul Blackburn. It turned out to be neither, however, as a different veteran journeyman, Alex Wood, gets the nod.
The Rockies had options for Opening Day, but all of them are uninspiring. They went with Kyle Freeland, who has been in Denver forever and remains on a sizeable contract.
It's was difficult to envision the reigning National League champion Diamondbacks going with anyone other than Zac Gallen in this spot after finishing third in NL Cy Young voting a year ago.
Boston's Opening Day starter was going to be Lucas Giolito, who came over in the offseason but was recently lost for the season with an arm injury. With Giolito out, the starter is young hurler Brayan Bello.
Mariners manager Scott Servais finally made an obvious announcement when he told reporters that Luis Castillo would get the nod for his team. While George Kirby and Logan Gilbert both have cases, Castillo is the established ace of the team.
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