There was no single bigger mandate for the Cincinnati Reds this winter than to ‘get the pitching,’ based obviously on that collective unit’s failures over the first few years of the massive rebuild. That landed them Sonny Gray, Tanner Roark, and Alex Wood, among others, high-profile names that should conceivably help the Reds climb out of the NL Central cellar for the first time in a long time.
Come Opening Day, though, none of those new names will be taking the mound first for the Reds. On Tuesday evening, they revealed that talented righty Luis Castillo will start for them in the season’s first game.