Right now the Chicago Cubs have a starting rotation that, for all intents and purposes, is set heading into 2019: Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Cole Hamels, Yu Darvish and Jose Quintana. Looking at their careers as a whole and their raw abilities, that is a really good rotation on paper. Unless Theo Epstein shocks us all, this looks like the five guys starting on the mound come Opening Week.
Last year we saw the rotation start off slow, accumulating a 4.68 FIP in 503 innings (26th in MLB) in the first half.