Seattle Mariners Officially Name 'La Piedra' as the Opening Day Starter

The decision here is hardly surprising, as Castillo is the senior member of a young staff. While George Kirby or Logan Gilbert could get the nod someday, Castillo gets it for the second consecutive year. Last year, he tossed six scoreless innings against the Cleveland Guardians.

The 31-year-old Castillo is one of the nastiest pitchers in all of baseball and the M's need him to be a dominant force if they want to make a return trip to the playoffs this season. He's headed into his eighth major league season with the Cincinnati Reds and Mariners, having joined Seattle at the trade deadline in 2022.

Lifetime, he's 62-64 with a 3.54 ERA. Castillo is coming off a year in which he went 14-9 with a 3.34 ERA for the M's, who missed the playoffs by 1.0 game. He made an American League-best 33 starts and finished fifth in the American League Cy Young voting.

Castillo is a three-time All-Star who made the team a season ago when the game was hosted in Seattle.

He'll be joined in the rotation by Kirby, Gilbert and youngsters Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller.

The Red Sox have not yet named their Opening Day starter, so we don't know who will go opposite Castillo just yet.