Kershaw with the Dodgers, Clemens on the Red Sox or hearing stories about Seaver with the Mets.
Here are the worst pitchers to make an Opening Day start for each American League team.
I’m not talking the worst outing but the worst careers.
Pavano, outside of his time in the Bronx, was not a bad pitcher.
He won 108 games in his career.
Especially when he was traded to the Mariners after the 2007 season.
Bedard was one of the better pitchers in the American League that year.
Bedard pitched well for Seattle…but was rarely healthy.
He only made 46 starts over four seasons for them.
Boston Red Sox: Daisuke Matsuzuka, 2008
I hate putting Dice-K on this list.
His career is better than people remember.
His first two years in Boston, he was a very good pitcher.
He was 4th in Cy Young voting in 2008.
I can’t defend the years after that and the Red Sox paid way too much for him.
However, this isn’t a Hideki Irabu or Ken Igawa situation.
Dice-K was a major contributor on the 2007 World Series champions.
The Blue Jays tried to get MLB and Bud Selig to reverse the trade but they said no.
He made 188 starts, won 67 games and even started a couple playoff games.
At the end of his career he even worked as a closer and picked up 47 saves.
In actuality, his name was Roberto Hernandez and he was actually 30.
In 2012, it was uncovered that he had lied about his identity and age.
He also had his best pitching days behind him.
Baltimore Orioles: Tommy Milone, 2020
Milone wasn’t a terrible pitcher in his career by any stretch.
He had a couple decent seasons with Oakland to being his career and even started a playoff game.
In fact, he only made six starts for the Orioles before being traded to the Braves.
He hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2017 and held his own against a stacked USA lineup.
His MLB career was odd.
He’d never really be consistent and his worst year was the 2013 season he was with the Twins.
Detroit Tigers: Mike Maroth, 2003
Someone had to do it.
Maroth is the MLB embodiment of “wrong place, wrong time”.
The best years of his career were on the historically awful Tiger teams of 2002-05.
I give Maroth credit for taking the ball every fifth day.
Because of that, he’s the last pitcher to lose 20 games.
He deserved a lot better.
With the right team, he could have even started a playoff game.
He was a pretty miserable starter in his career going 29-36 with a 5.33 ERA.
It wasn’t until he was sent to the bullpen did the ERA level out to 4.56 in relief.
Toronto Blue Jays: Drew Hutchison, 2015
Hutchison was the youngest Opening Day starter for Toronto.
He really hasn’t been the same since this start.
He wasn’t a regular starter in the majors again until last year with the Tigers.
He’s also not long for this list.
He won a coin toss to start Opening Day between him and Jeremy Affeldt.
Then, Hernandez started the season 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA in April.
That was the peak for Hernandez.
He wound up needing Tommy John surgery before the year was over and he missed 2004 as well.
Instead, I have to go with Scheppers who made FOUR major league starts in his entire career.
Brazelton was the 3rd overall pick in 2001.
He was picked ahead of Mark Teixeira and David Wright.
The then-named Devil Rays were really counting on him being a major part of their rotation for years.
The bottom fell out in 2005 when he went 1-8 with a 7.61 ERA.
He’d be out of the majors for good the following year.
