2014 Opening Day Starting Lineup?

Off the heels of the wonderful news yesterday that Clayton Kershaw will be a Dodger at least through 2018 and perhaps longer, it seems the starting rotation and bullpen are quite set, even if the Dodgers are rumored to still be in on Masahiro Tanaka. So with that said, what is the opening day lineup going to look like? There are a lot of the same pieces returning, but a few key differences, such as the departure of Mark Ellis and the questions that arise from Alexander Guerrero’s readiness, the health of Matt Kemp (as in, he should be ready for opening day), and what to do with our 4 healthy and should-be-starting outfielders.

For the sake of putting something together, I’m going to assume that Alexander Guerrero gets the spot at second base over a rumored Dee Gordon, or Miguel Rojas. I also want to preface this with the fact that things happen in spring training that can alter this projection significantly, but with pitchers and catchers still many days away from even reporting to spring training, here’s my stab at what the lineup card might read come 1am in Los Angeles on March 23rd:

1. LF / L – Crawford, C.
2. RF / R – Puig, Y.
3. SS / R – Ramirez, H.
4. 1B / L – Gonzalez, A.
5. CF / R – Kemp, M.
6. 3B / R – Uribe, J.
7. 2B / R – Guerrero, A.
8. C / R – Ellis, A.
9. P / L – Kershaw, C.

It’s tough to say that Andre Ethier doesn’t get a spot, but you have to figure that it’s going to be a platoon out there, and given the health record of our outfield in 2013, we’re going to need at least 4 outfielders. I’d also like to point out that I’m not crazy about the lack of left-handed bats in the lineup as it would be great to be able to split up the bottom of this projected lineup which becomes very right-handed heavy 5 – 8.

As it stands today, this is what I would field in the land down under, but who knows what might happen and change between now and the three hours before game time that this lineup card is required to be published.