{"id":605132,"date":"2026-03-04T05:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T05:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:31:15","slug":"diamondbacks-reacts-survey-opening-day-starter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605132\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Reacts Survey: Opening Day starter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsurvey.co.uk\/s\/0DWS6R\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sign up here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sign up here<\/a> to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Maybe it made sense for Torey Lovullo to wait before announcing his Opening Day starter. He got some flak for the situation last year, where Corbin Burnes was originally tagged for the honor but, due to his strict pre-season schedule, was unable to take the ball. That forced a late switch to Zac Gallen instead. This year, Torey got well ahead of things. Barely had pitchers and catchers reported, when he said on Valentine\u2019s Day that Merrill Kelly would be the first starter used by the team. But the calendar hasn\u2019t even turned to March before Kelly had to be scratched, the result of intercostal nerve irritation in his back.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The hope is Merrill may not miss much time, but it does leave the team with a vacancy to be filled. Corbin Burnes won\u2019t be back, but you could make a case for just about anyone else currently expected to be on the roster. While it is little more than a token gesture \u2013 rotations inevitably end getting muddied before many weeks have gone by \u2013 it remains an honor. So who do you think will be the recipient of the honor? Zac Gallen, last year\u2019s Opening Day starter? Ryne Nelson, arguably the best pitcher on the team in 2025? Eduardo Rodriguez, the highest-paid member of the rotation? Brandon Pfaadt, the youngest? Or Michael Soroka, who\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Um, okay: maybe not quite make a case for everyone. But, hey, it\u2019s an honor simply to be in the conversation. So who do you think it will be? Please show your working in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,654,97,38,756,660,4,5938,32219,5951,638,75136,86],"class_list":["post-605132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-brandon-pfaadt","tag-corbin-burnes","tag-diamondbacks","tag-eduardo-rodriguez","tag-merrill-kelly","tag-mlb","tag-ryne-nelson","tag-salt-river-fields","tag-starter","tag-torey-lovullo","tag-valentines-day","tag-zac-gallen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116169270019717540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}