Four days ago, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was prodded about who would the opening day starting pitcher would be for the club. He said that the starter has been privately announced, but won’t announce it publicly just yet.
Tony Gonsolin will start Saturday. Alex Wood will start Sunday. Roberts says they’ve privately named an Opening Day starter but there is no sense in announcing it publicly.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) February 20, 2020
On Monday, Dave was asked again.
While he just on the cusp of answering the question, he thought better of it.
Do we have an opening day starter yet… um, yeah, we do… I’m not ready to share it though. It’s one of two guys, how about that?
Doc turned it around on the reporters and asked them the question right back. Ken Gurnick of dodgers.com (who asked the question initially) pointed to Clayton Kershaw, who has started opening day “the last 9 years”. Of course, Kenny may have forgotten that Hyun-Jin Ryu started opening day in 2019 while Kershaw started the season on the injured list.
However, Kershaw had started every opening day since 2011, setting a team record for opening day starts, surpassing Don Sutton and Don Drysdale.
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As for the other guy Roberts alluded to, the assumption is that Walker Buehler would have that mantle. The soon-to-be de facto ace of the Dodgers is entering his third full season with the big club.
Moreover, the majority of voters from our Dodgers Nation Twitter pointed to Buehler being the guy that gets the nod.
Dave Roberts says the Dodgers have privately named the Opening Day starter, but they won’t announce it yet.
Who do you think it is?
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) February 20, 2020
While Roberts is close to naming the starter, he’ll likely stand steadfast in holding off on the announcement for another week or so.
Then he’ll most likely name Clayton Kershaw.
