When Teams Use 'Openers' As Starters
ALSO: UPS AND DOWNS OF THE 2026 SEASON
Pregame Pepper
The last time the San Francisco Giants finished with a winning record was 2021 . . .
After hitting 60 regular-season home runs last year, slump-ridden Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh needs to rally . . .
Trading catcher Jonah Heim the day after he produced a five-RBI game has backfired on the Braves, who have only journeyman Sandy Leon and Chadwick Tromp as replacements for injured slugger Drake Baldwin, the NL’s defending Rookie of the Year . . .
The AL’s defending top rookie, Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, had at least four pets named after his favorite Phillies . . .
The Chicago Cubs have already had two 10-game winning streaks this season — the first time they’ve done that since 1935 . . .
Despite poor starts by Manny Machado and Fernando Tatís, Jr., the surprising San Diego Padres are giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a serious challenge in the National League West . . .
Losing ace pitcher Clay Holmes (fractured fibula) wounds the New York Mets but not as much as the pathetic start of free agent signee Bo Bichette . . .
Teams managed by Bobby Cox won 100 games in six different seasons.
Leading Off
‘Openers’ replacing rotation starters
By Andrew Sharp
On April 24 in Chicago, the Nationals and White Sox began the game with neither team having a traditional starting pitcher on the mound. It was the first time for both teams to have its “opener” match up with an opponent’s “opener.”
Relief pitchers PJ Poulin for Washington and Bryan Hudson for Chicago knew that their outings would be limited, regardless of their performance. In this case, traditional starters replaced them, although use of the so-called opener doesn’t require that to happen.
The pitchers after the opener could just as easily be other members of the team’s bullpen, although that more properly is a true bullpen game. That’s what the Dodgers did on May 15 –- using as planned eight pitchers, all of them traditional relievers and seven of them going one inning each, to beat the Angels, 6-0.
Through May 17 this season, 18 teams – 10 in the National League and eight in the American -- used openers to start games. So far, four teams account for the bulk of those games, with the Nationals having done it eight times. The White Sox, Rockies, and Rays are right behind. In contrast, according to Baseball Reference, openers started just 14 games in which they were replaced by a long man last season.
The basic strategy behind the opener is straightforward: to produce a good matchup against the top of the opposing team’s batting order and to reduce the chance of a traditional starter having to face the opposing team’s lineup a third time.
The opener, first notably used by the Rays in 2018, was seen then as a bit of an aberration. Yet the use of openers spread quickly the next three seasons before dropping substantially in 2024 after the commissioner’s office began talking about a possible rule change.
According to Jon Becker of FanGraphs, circumstances also played a part in the substantial drop in the use of openers in 2024. Managers who favored the tactic were no longer managing. Pitching staffs that had many guys who did better in short bursts now had more starters capable of going deeper into games.
Using Stathead, Becker came up with a chart showing the number of openers used from 2017 through 2023, when it happened 154 times. The only other time opener-use topped 100 was in 2019, when openers started 165 games.
The first time both teams employed an opener to start apparently was on Sept. 4, 2018, when Tampa Bay reliever Cole Sulser, making his first career start, went two innings and threw 37 pitches. The Twins countered with rookie Ronny Henriquez, also making his first start. He pitched just the first inning.
Surely there have been other instances in the past of someone other a presumed starter taking the mound in the first inning. Such cases normally would have been a result of a late injury or illness of a scheduled starter. The late substitute would have been counted on to pitch as long as possible, not just an inning or two. Now the presumption is that the opener will be removed at the some pre-defined pitch count or number of batters, no matter how well he is doing.
Early in 2019, MLB stats analyst Mike Petriello took a close look at what effect Tampa Bay’s use of openers in 42 games in 2018 had on the team’s pitching performance. He found the results inconclusive.
“It’s a gambit to put your weaker pitchers in a slightly better position to succeed. It’s a potentially small edge in a sport that thrives on finding those edges” Petriello wrote. “Whether or not it even provides that edge remains up for debate.”
The use of an opener had a limited but storied history long before 2018.
Most famously, it was employed as a ruse in Game 7 of the 1924 World Series. Lefty-batting Bill Terry of the Giants, in his rookie year, was terrorizing Washington’s pitching, going 6-for-12 against right-handers. Still, player-manager Bucky Harris announced that sore-armed righty Curly Ogden would start.
Giants’ manager John McGraw put Terry in the starting lineup, as Harris hoped. The real plan was to lift Ogden for the lefty George Mogridge after the first batter, but Ogden struck out Frankie Frisch on three pitches. After Ogden walked the next batter, Harris went to the mound to summon Mogridge, who had been warming up under the stands.
McGraw pitch-hit for Terry. So that problem was solved. In one of the most dramatic Game 7’s of all time, a couple of bad hops -- and perhaps fate -- willed Walter Johnson in relief to hold off the Giants long enough for the first A.L. Senators franchise to win its only World Series.
With starting pitchers today so often going no more than six innings, does it make much difference if they come into the game after first or second inning? The rule that a starter must go five innings to be credited with a win surely could be modified. The Dodgers’ bullpen game made a mockery of it, anyway. The second of their eight pitchers got the win for his relief inning. That’s if anybody worries about a pitcher’s wins these days.
Andrew Sharp is a retired newspaper journalist who lives in central New Jersey. He was raised in the D.C. area as a fan of Senators I and II. He blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Ups and Downs at the Season’s One-Third Mark
By Dan Schlossberg
Playing baseball is like riding a roller-coaster — maybe with even more ups and downs.
Now that the 2026 campaign has reached the Memorial Day Weekend marker, it’s time to take stock and see what trends developed over the first third of the season.
Ups
After leading the National League with 56 home runs last year, Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber is doing it again — and turned himself into a solid candidate to swipe the MVP trophy from four-time winner Shohei Ohtani
The two-way Dodgers DH has his sights set on his first Cy Young Award after posting the lowest ERA by pitchers who have worked at least 25 innings
After signing a minor-league contract, journeyman Dom Smith hit a walkoff pinch-hit grand slam in his first Atlanta at-bat and never looked back
Back in action after Hurricane Milton knocked it out of commission for a year, Tropicana Field is proving a safe haven for the Tampa Bay Rays, who went into the weekend with the best winning percentage in the majors
Cam Schlittler, the pitcher with the impossible-to-pronounce name, has supplanted Max Fried as the best pitcher in Yankee pinstripes
The Athletics don’t have a city name anymore but they do have a surprise spot at the top of the American League West standings
Thanks to rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami, the Chicago White Sox are the surprise team of the season, running second to Cleveland in the AL Central while actually winning more than they lost
Justin Wrobleski, a name few knew, is quickly winning fans as the surprise pitching star of the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers
Downs
Craig Kimbrel, DFA’s by the struggling Mets, realizes his career — and path to the Hall of Fame — could be over
Jack Flaherty and Chris Paddack starting 0-5 and putting their futures in jeopardy
Cal Raleigh going from MVP runner-up to complete bust for the Seattle Mariners
Alex Cora losing his job as manager of the Boston Red Sox when GM Craig Breslow deserved the hit
C.B. Bucknor losing more ABS challenges than any other umpire
The Los Angeles Angels
The Colorado Rockies
New Giants manager Tony Vitello, certain to be the next manager fired if Carlos Mendoza of the Mets doesn’t beat him to it
Bo Bichette, who inexplicably forgot how to hit
Fernando Tatís, Jr., who forgot how to hit home runs
Tarik Skubal, whose bid for a third straight Cy Young with free agent pending took a disastrous detour
The Detroit Tigers, who dropped to last place even after adding coveted free agent starter Framber Valdez to form a 1-2 pitching punch with Skubal
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers the game for Lucas Communications, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and assorted other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Extra Innings
“I wouldn’t have become the player I became without Bobby Cox.”
— Andruw Jones, Hall of Fame Class of 2026
Say what? The Washington Nationals have scored the most runs in the majors . . .
The Boston Red Sox, who should benefit from playing half their schedule in the Fenway bandbox, have scored the second-fewest runs in the American League . . .
Although the Giants would love to dump Rafael Devers before this year’s Aug. 3 trade deadline, lefty starting pitcher Robbie Ray may be easier to trade . . .
Houston’s two best players, DH Yordan Alvarez and closer Josh Hader are also prospective free agents up for trade who could spark bidding wars by contenders . . .
Just as Gerrit Cole returns from his elbow issues, fellow Yankees starter Max Fried is felled by his . . .
Lefty reliever Aaron Bummer, whose surname matched his performance, was finally dumped by the overly-patient Atlanta Braves . . .
Defending NL batting king Trea Turner, shortstop and leadoff man for the Phillies, had a rough start on both offense and defense but has a guaranteed contract that pays $27 million per annum through 2033.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.