Chris Stratton came into camp basically guaranteed to open the season as the San Francisco Giants’ fourth starter in the rotation. Manager Bruce Bochy said last season that he thought Stratton could be more than a back of the rotation type guy. That theory was put to the test early in the 2018 season.
When Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija both went down in the last week of Spring Training, Stratton was virtually propelled to being the number two starter behind Johnny Cueto. When Cueto joined his rotation mates on the disabled list after two starts, Stratton became the de facto ace.