This news is a little stale because I didn’t want to pay $19 for wifi on my flight to Phoenix, but posterity dictated I address it just the same. Craig Counsell announced on Thursday that Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad would begin the season in the rotation and that Drew Smyly would come out of the bullpen. The Wicks news isn’t a surprise at all, though many felt Smyly had the inside track on the final spot.
In the end, it may have been a matter of not wanting four lefties in the rotation after Justin Steele, Shu014dta Imanaga, and Wicks.