Washington Nationals unveil opening day roster, portion of starting rotation
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The Nationals finalized their opening day roster on Wednesday, 24 hours before the team takes the field against the Cubs in Chicago for their first game of the season.
In addition to the 26-man roster, Washington also confirmed which pitchers would grace the top of the rotation. The team already announced that Cade Cavalli would be the opening day starter. He’ll be followed by right-handers Miles Mikolas and Jake Irvin.
Zach Litell and Foster Griffin will round out the starting rotation.
Washington’s bullpen features three relievers who have never made an opening day roster before: Andre Granillo, Cole Henry and PJ Poulin. Clayton Beeter, Brad Lord, Cionel Perez, Gus Varland and Ken Waldichuck round out the group of pitchers.
The Nationals open the season with a four-man outfield rotation with James Wood, Jacob Young, Daylen Lile and Joey Wiemer.
The infield group features shortstop CJ Abrams, third baseman Brady House, first baseman Luis Garcia Jr., second baseman Nasim Nunez, corner infielder Andres Chaparro and utilitymen Jose Tena and Jorbit Vivas.
Catchers Drew Millas and Keibert Ruiz will split time behind the plate for the Nationals.
The roster reveal lacked much drama after the Nationals made most of their most surprising moves at the end of spring training. Manager Blake Butera and President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni sent promising players like outfielder Dylan Crews, catcher Harry Ford and pitcher Josiah Gray to Triple-A Rochester to start the season.
This year, Washington’s games will feature MLB-produced broadcasts that stream live through Nationals.TV. Information about which cable providers will carry the new network will be released on Thursday morning.