Marlins Opening Day Starter Will Be Chen, Not Fernandez
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JUPITER (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins have announced who will be the team's opening day starter, and it's not who many would have guessed.
Free agent signing Wei Yin-Chen, not staff ace Jose Fernandez, will start for the Marlins when they open the season against the Detroit Tigers on April 5th at Marlins Park.
While Fernandez is considered one of the best young pitchers in baseball, he's also coming off a season in which he only started 11 games after returning from Tommy John surgery and then later in the year he missed time with a shoulder injury.
With that in mind, Miami's new manager Don Mattingly thought it would be best to keep Fernandez somewhat limited in 2016, which includes not starting on opening day.
Mattingly: "Harvey's situation last yr, Strasburg [before that], it always seemed to me like why wouldn't you have this set from the start?"
— Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince) March 20, 2016
The 23-year-old Fernandez has a 22-9 record with a 2.40 ERA in 47 career starts.