As the MLB season officially gets underway tomorrow morning in Japan with a matchup between the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, teams are now beginning to name their Opening Day starters for their season openers at the end of this month. The Washington Nationals are no different in that they have officially named their starter for the first game of the year, and, similar to previous years, the club has chosen a tenured left-handed starter.
While in years past, that tenured lefty was Patrick Corbin, with him finally gone, the team has now bestowed the honor onto MacKenzie Gore, who will make his first Opening Day start of his career. This decision, announced by Davey Martinez to Nationals media members down in West Palm Beach this morning, should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the team.
As anticipated, Gore is going to be the bonafide ace of this staff, and will likely be followed by some combination of Jake Irvin, Trevor Williams, Mitchell Parker, and Michael Soroka. Gore has looked fantastic so far in spring training, and the key for him to take the next step forward in his development as a pitcher is him becoming more consistent.
2024 was a season of ups and downs for him, as he began the season looking like he was finally realizing his immense potential and potentially even on track to become an All-Star for the first time, but he stalled out during the dog days of summer and began to regress, but then he finished the strong and seemed poise to carry that in to the offseason.
our opening day starter ❤️🔥
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 17, 2025
→ @Mgore181 ← pic.twitter.com/0kovYFLINv
His ERA got down to as low as 2.91 after his first 11 starts by the end of May, but then ballooned up to 4.66 in mid-August. He would end the season with 3.90 ERA, which was solid but not as great as we would have hoped. Heading into the 2025 season, Gore appears to be ready to put everything together, and getting the nod for Opening Day should hopefully be the first start of what should be a great season from the young lefty.
Gore will be facing off against the Philadelphia Phillies, who he is very familiar with at this point of his career, and has some middling numbers against. In his career, he has a 1-4 record with a 4.96 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 9 career starts against them, according to Statmuse. However, his final start of 4 against them last season was fantastic, as he threw 6 shutout innings while striking out 9 and allowing just 3 hits in what would end up being the Nationals' final victory of the 2024 season.
Congratulations to MacKenzie Gore on his first career Opening Day start, and I can not wait to see how his 2025 season looks!
Do you agree with the decision to start MacKenzie Gore? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.