LOS ANGELES – Six Bruins found themselves on Opening Day rosters as the 2019 Major League Baseball season began on Thursday.
Trevor Bauer (Cleveland Indians), Gerrit Cole (Houston Astros), Brandon Crawford (San Francisco Giants), and Matt Grace (Washington Nationals) all made the initial 25-man rosters for their teams. In addition, Dave Roberts returns as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers while Torey Lovullo begins his third season as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Bauer (2009-11) is coming off the best campaign of his career, posting a 2.21 ERA over 175 1/3 innings for the Indians. He was a leading candidate for the Cy Young Award despite missing over a month of the season due to injury. Bauer, who struck out 221 batters (11.3 per nine innings) was named an All-Star for the first time in his career and received votes for the AL MVP Award. He led the league in Fielding Independent Pitching at 2.44.
Cole (2009-11) is beginning his second season with the Astros. His first season in Houston was excellent, as he went 15-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 32 starts. The right-hander struck out an AL-best 12.4 batters per nine innings and finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting. Earlier this offseason, he set the MLB record for the largest salary ever awarded by arbitration at $13.5 million
Crawford (2006-08) is making his eighth straight Opening Day start, the most by a Giants shortstop since 1958. He played in his second All-Star Game last year, ending the season with a .254 batting average over 151 games. The ninth-year veteran has double digit home runs in each of the past five seasons, and he's 13 away from his 100th career roundtripper. A sure-handed defender, he's won the NL Gold Glove in three of the last four seasons.
Grace (2008-10) is in his fifth MLB season, all with Washington. He's coming off arguably the best season of his career, as he logged career-bests in appearances (56), innings pitched (59.2) and ERA (2.87) for the Nats. He has a career 3.54 ERA over 129.2 innings.
Lovullo (1984-87) and Roberts (1992-95) return as the leaders of their NL West clubs after having both signed extensions this winter. Roberts has led the Dodgers to the World Series in each of the past two seasons, and he was the NL Manager of the Year in 2016. Lovullo won the same honor in 2017.