Homegrown players on opening day

 

One great thing that I really like in baseball is to watch homegrown players become everyday players or even more, become All-Stars. Opening day is a big day in baseball because it truly tells everyone that baseball is officially back. Meanwhile, players who can be in the starting lineup on opening day are supposed to be excited. And, I found something interesting about the lineups on opening day. I quickly went through the starting lineups on opening day and tried to understand which teams were loaded with homegrown players in their opening day lineup.

My method is very simple, a homegrown player is that a player was drafted by an organization or signed by it as an amateur free agent and subsequently developed in its minor league system. Besides, I only went through the starting lineups on opening day, however, for some teams such as the Mets and the Nationals, their opening day games were postponed, so I went through their starting lineups for the first game. 

The result is actually quite interesting. Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays each have 6 homegrown players in their opening day lineups. The Pirates might not be a playoff contender in 2021, however, they defeated the 2020 NL Central winner the Chicago Cubs to begin the season. On opening day, homegrown players Adam Frazier, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Kevin Newman, Gregory Polanco, Jacob Stallings and the starting pitcher Chad Kuhl were in the Pirates starting lineup.

The Twins have won the AL Central title two consecutive years and they definitely want to do it again in 2021. On the 2021 opening day, the Twins had homegrown players Luis Arraez, Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver in the starting lineup.

Toronto Blue Jays were back in the playoffs last season and they are loaded with good players that were developed in their farm system. They beat the Yankees on opening day and in the starting lineup, we see that Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Rowdy Tellez and Danny Jansen were all from the Blue Jays farm system.

However, two teams did not have any homegrown players on their opening day starting lineups. The Padres front office made blockbuster trades during the offseason and inked a long-term deal with Fernando Tatis Jr., these moves made the Padres a very interesting team to watch. But, the Padres didn’t have any homegrown players in the opening day lineup. The Tigers defeated the Indians on opening day, nevertheless, when checking their opening day lineup, there were no homegrown players.

I like to watch homegrown players to make it into the big league. However, each team’s front office has its way to build a team. Opening day is just the first day of the season and we shall see many changes in the starting lineups during the season. But, a good farm system normally plays a key element in a team’s long-term success. For example, the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series Champion and every postseason game was started by a homegrown pitcher.