Shane Bieber will be the Cleveland Guardians Opening Day starter.
The Cleveland Guardians play the first series of the 2023 MLB season next weekend and the final pieces are falling into place. They put the final touches on the roster earlier on Saturday and then shifted to establishing what their rotation will be for their first few games.
The Guardians' rotation for this season will be very similar to what it was in 2021 and 2022. These will be their starters for the first series against the Seattle Mariners:
- Thursday, March 30 - Shane Bieber
- Friday, March 31 - Triston McKenzie
- Saturday, April 1 - Aaron Civale
- Sunday, April 2 - Cal Quantrill
Bieber getting the Opening Day start was expected. He's been the ace of this rotation for the last three years and continues to pitch at the top of his game. The 2020 Cy-Young winner had a rough start to 2022 after he missed a chunk of 2021, but then really settled in in the second half of the year with a 2.48 ERA.
McKenzie throwing right after Beiber is one of the best one-two-punches that an MLB team has to offer. Dr. Sticks finished the 2022 season with a sub-three ERA and he continues to get better each season. It wouldn't even be surprising to me if we considered him the team's ace by the end of the year.
I thought that they would throw Quantrill before Civale, but at the end of the day swapping the two isn't that big of a deal. Plesac Also doesn't appear on this list, but he'll likely he'll open up Cleveland's series against Oakland on Monday.
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