Fine with Lukes in instead of Sanchez because this feels like a bit of a celebration of last year and Lukes was a part of that and Sanchez wasn't but I still hate having four LH Ofers. Just feels like really poor roster management.

Agreed Glevin - 7 OF's is more my concern - how the heck do you get them all enough playing time? Guess Schneider will get lots at 2B and Barger at 3B (Barger listed as an IF on the Jays website). I'm guessing the Jays plan to give Vlad and Springer more days off this year and shift Okamoto to 1B those days plus Vlad to DH or bench/Springer to bench. Then you can put Sanchez and Lukes in the OF or Schneider and Straw depending on LH or RH pitcher. So yeah, there is a path but it isn't pretty. Guess they hope most balls are hit up the middle to Varsho-Gimenez-Clement.

Agreed it is poor roster management. It's not just a LF platoon between a LHB and a RHB, but now it's also a platoon between two LHH outfielders vs RHP. Three players platooning for one position, essentially. Seems like the are going to use Sanchez and Lukes in LF vs RHP depending on the matchup, which is just not a smart way to optimize a roster, especially since the RHH side of that platoon doesn't even hit LHP all that well (105 wRC+ vs LHP in Schneider's career vs 112 vs RHP). Heck, even Lukes isn't much better than average against RHP.

Either way, I would have been shocked if Lukes didn't start tonight. It's going to be a celebration and curtain call atmosphere for the 2025 Jays tonight, and Lukes was a part of that run. It's ultimately Game 1 of 162 so not a big deal. The roster construction itself seems more of an issue, but we have a long time to see how that plays out. Maybe it plays out well in the end.

It's not poor roster management. It's just having lots of good players.

Barger and Schneider could plausibly be our fulltime starting 3B and 2B, and good ones, so it's hardly an OF logjam.

And counting Varsho as just another lefty OF seems wrong. CF is clearly not like corner OF.

And the only guys who actually need (small-side) platooning are Gimenez and Sanchez.

In the end the roster in October won't look at all like it does today. Opening day last year was... Bo SS, Vlad 1B, Santander LF, Gimenez 2B, Kirk C, Springer CF, Wagner DH, Clement 3B, Roden RF - by October Wagner & Roden were long gone, Santander was IL most of the time, Gimenez batting 4th was hard to believe, Springer re-earned the leadoff slot, and Bo was at 2B when in the field.

Pitching that day was Berrios, Lovelady, Barnes, Green, Yariel, Sandlin - only Yariel pitched in October and now none are on the active roster - Berrios IL and Yariel in AAA.

Things change, that is the one thing we can be guaranteed of.

Starters: 4 LHH, 5 RHH

Bench: 2 RHH, 1 LHH, 1 SWH

Positional Coverage (asterisk = could use platooning):

CF: Varsho, Straw
RF: Barger*, Lukes
LF: Sanchez*, Schneider
3B: Okamoto, Barger*, Clement
SS: Gimenez*, Clement
2B: Clement, Gimenez*, Schneider
1B: Guerrero, Okamoto
C: Kirk, Heineman

It's not having a lot of good players, it's having a lot of OK players. Sanchez, Lukes, and Schenider are all major leaguers but second division starters or platoon sorts of guys. Other contenders in East have Anthony, Ward, and Bellinger in LF all of whom are are better than any of those three Jays. I also don't get hitting Lukes second. He's probably the team's third worst hitter against RHP. (Gimenez and Clement). Barger and Varsho aren't great fits at #2 but they are significantly better offensively overall.