Chicago Cubs manager David Ross held off announcing who would start the season opener for the last three weeks.
The obvious choice became official Saturday. Kyle Hendricks was named the starter for the Thursday opener against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” Hendricks said of being the opening-day starter for the third time. “For Rossy to make that decision and have the trust in me to give me the ball, it was amazing the last two years.”
Ross pointed to Hendricks’ experience to handle the moment and the ability to be ready after a unique offseason and shortened camp as factors in the decision.
“He continues to evolve as a pitcher,” Ross said. “The steadiness of who he is in his routine, that’s just something that you learn to love and you can rely on. Reliability, consistency, the things that make up major-league players that are playing this game for a long time, Kyle has a lot of those attributes.”
Only seven pitchers in Cubs history have started more consecutive opening days: Carlos Zambrano (six), Rick Sutcliffe (five), Fergie Jenkins (five), Rick Reuschel (four), Larry Jackson (four), Lon Warneke (four) and Orval Overall (four).
“The first one meant a lot to me just from the guys that came before me and what I learned from them, what they taught me, what I was able to watch,” Hendricks said. “And then to take that out there for myself, it’s a testament to the guys that came before me.
“It really meant a lot to me then. Now moving forward it’s falling into that rhythm and that timing again, not thinking too much of it. Keep it simple for me. It’s just like any other game.”
Even new teammate Marcus Stroman endorsed Hendricks for the start last week. Stroman will pitch in a minor-league game Sunday, lining him up to start Friday for his Cubs debut.
“I truly believe Hendricks should be the opening-day (starter) just because of his career, how unbelievable he’s been in the playoffs,” Stroman said March 23. “His resume speaks for itself. He’s the guy who should be handed the ball each and every opening day as long as he’s here.
“Hendricks is the man. Hendricks is the guy. He’s been doing this for a long time. I’ll pitch Day 5. I really don’t care when I pitch — I’ve never been prideful on that.”
Hendricks’ goal Thursday is to establish an aggressive identity from the first pitch to set the tone for the season for himself and the rest of the pitching staff. Hendricks felt he didn’t do a good enough job of that last year, contributing to the worst season of his eight-year career. In 32 starts, Hendricks posted a 4.77 ERA, 1.348 WHIP, 89 ERA+ and a league-high 200 hits allowed in 181 innings.
“Last year we were just falling behind too many guys, so many walks, so many base runners,” Hendricks said. “Coming right at guys, you can tell in body language and just pitches, how they’re coming out. … Force them to do something they’re not comfortable with.”
