Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Dave Roberts Says it’s Down to 2 for Opening Day Starter

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.

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.

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.

NEXT: Alex Wood Thinks He Belongs in the Starting Rotation

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

3 Comments

  1. It doesn’t matter who starts on opening day. Why is this played as a prominent decision for Roberts? We have a deep talent pool of pitchers.
    Just get everyone healthy, and ready to go. If Kershaw is fully ready, give it to him. But it really doesn’t matter. It’s 1 of 162 games. Opening day is a celebration of the return of baseball. It’s not a coronation ceremony for starting pitchers. By contrast, every pitcher selection, starters and releivers, is extremely important in the postseason, and this is where Roberts has failed repeatedly. Hey Dave, flip a coin for the opening day starter. I don’t care much who it is. But when it gets to the postseason, I expect real and effective decisions, or you may have a shorter than expected managerial career.

  2. One of two guys, but I can’t tell you who or I’ll have to kill you. Roberts may have well said this. It makes as much sense. Oh the suspense. This will keep me on the edge of my seat, doing clandestine research to see if I can uncover who they might be considering. Clint…waste of space on the DN site.

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