Chicago Cubs and White Sox name their Opening Day starters

The Chicago Cubs and White Sox have named this year’s starters for their respective Opening Day matchups. Marcus Stroman will toe the rubber for the Cubs against the Milwaukee Brewers in front of the Wrigley Crowd, while Dylan Cease will get the start for the White Sox in Houston as they take on the defending Champions in the Astros.

This is the first year in a few years that Kyle Hendricks will not be the Cubs’ Opening Day starter. Hendricks has been the face of the Chicago Cubs rotation over the last three years after both Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta left the team.

Since Hendricks is still recovering from his capsular tear in his throwing shoulder, he has not thrown live batting practices yet. Jordan Bastian of mlb.com reported that Hendricks wants to throw three more bullpen sessions before moving on to live pitching.

Marcus Stroman is ready and excited for the first game of the season, as he took to Twitter after hearing he was named the team’s top starter.

The rest of the rotation has not been made official by manager David Ross, but it is safe to assume both Jameson Taillon and Justin Steele are locks. Once Hendricks gets back, he will surely have a spot in the rotation, but for now it will most likely be Drew Smyly and one of Hayden Wesneski or Javier Assad as the fifth starter.

Both have looked good during camp. Wesneski has been the best Cubs starter during camp, but Assad looked good in high leverage games during the World Baseball Classic for Team Mexico. It will be interesting to see who Ross goes with as the fifth starter, at least until Kyle Hendricks is ready to go.

The White Sox have a lot of proven arms in their rotation, and there is a lot less uncertainty with their starting five. Dylan Cease was the obvious choice for the Opening Day nod, coming off a season in which he was the runner up for the A.L. Cy Young award.

He has had some control issues in camp, but he is by far the best pitcher on the White Sox staff. He will have his hands full with the Astros deadly lineup, which now features beloved former White Sox star in Jose Abreu.

The rest of the White Sox rotation will consist of Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Mike Clevinger, and Michael Kopech. On paper this is a rotation that should be one of the best in the league, led by three pitchers who have all been in the Cy Young conversation in recent years. Clevinger has never found consistency after a few good years in Cleveland, but he is a solid arm at the back of the rotation.

The wild card is Kopech, who fans are still waiting to make that jump into star status. He has shown flashes of dominance, especially when they used him as a bullpen arm, but this year he has a lot of pressure on him to take that next step. He has been trying to add a changeup and mixing the types of fastballs that he throws, which will hopefully help him become a more well-rounded starter.

The Chicago Cubs and White Sox have two very different types of pitching rotations but are also in two different modes right now. The White Sox are supposed to be contenders, but they are slowly losing that respect from fans. The Cubs are building towards their next era.

They lack a true “ace,” but have a plethora of quality veteran options and a lot of developing talent that should be the future of the rotation. Anyways, you cannot go wrong with Marcus Stroman and Dylan Cease on Opening Day, no matter which team you root for.