Padres' Opening Day Starter Officially Announced

The San Diego Padres have their sights set on the 2023 World Series after losing in five games to the Philadelphia Phillies in last year's NL Championship Series. The Padres' journey for their first-ever title begins next week on Opening Day with a road game against the Colorado Rockies.

Padres fans are wondering which pitcher will start against the Rockies on Thursday, March 30. The good news is that question was answered when MLB revealed all 30 Opening Day starters on Friday.

Padres Opening Day Starter 2023

Blake Snell has been named as San Diego's Opening Day starting pitcher. This is the second time that Snell is taking the mound on the first day of a new MLB campaign. He accomplished that feat for the first time in 2019 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The decision to go with Snell on Thursday was essentially a no-brainer. Although San Diego has one of the more talented rotations in the majors, Joe Musgrove is dealing with a fractured big toe while Yu Darvish is believed to be fatigued from the World Baseball Classic. That made Snell the next-best option.

It's been five years since Snell's AL Cy Young campaign and while he hasn't reached those levels again, he was still solid last season. The crafty lefty made 24 starts for the Padres, pitching to a 3.38 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. His 12.0 strikeouts per nine innings marked the second-highest clip of his career.

Opposing Snell next week will be Rockies starter German Marquez, who's finished with an ERA of 4.40 or worse in three of the previous four seasons.

Padres World Series Odds

There's going to be a lot of pressure riding on Snell and the rest of San Diego's starting rotation this season. After all, the Padres currently own the sixth-best odds (+1000) to win the 2023 World Series according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

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