You may recall the emergence of “the opener” role in Major League Baseball this year. If you’re not entirely familiar with the role, it’s simply using a labeled relief pitcher for an inning or two to start a game. This then enables a labeled starting pitcher to enter the game against the bottom of an opposing team’s lineup as opposed to the top (if all goes according to plan).
While the strategy won’t go away anytime soon, I did write it off for the Texas Rangers’ sake back in September. Texas used an opener more and more as the season went along, typically awarding the role to Jeffrey Springs or Adrian Sampson.