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A look at who might be in the Cubs’ Opening Day bullpen

We stand now just 12 days to Opening Day.

The Cubs seem likely, in my view, to go with 13 position players and 13 pitchers on their Opening Day roster.

Setting aside for the moment the five starting pitchers, who are the guys who will be in the bullpen underneath the Wrigley Field bleachers on April 1 when the Cubs face the Pirates?

Here are my thoughts.

Closer: Craig Kimbrel

After three horrendous outings this spring, Kimbrel has been much better in his last two: two innings, one hit, no runs, three strikeouts. He’s still sitting at about 95-96 on his fastball and it would help him tremendously if that velocity could go up a tick or two.