Rise and Phight: 4/1/2021

We have finally made it to Opening Day.

Congratulations, friend. You done good waiting this whole time. There isn’t much more to say except: welcome back baseball.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• The Phillies have a plan to fix Scott Kingery.
• Some news and notes following Joe Girardi’s press conference, where he named Hector Neris as the closer to start the year.
• Meet the intern behind the 8,800 people being allowed back into the stadium this year.
• How good will this team be?

MLB news:

• The Mets and Francisco Lindor have finally reached an agreement, finding common ground on a massive 10 year, $341 million extension.
• You want previews, we’ve got previews. Here is the big ESPN preview that you’ve been waiting for. Another one, this from the New York Times ($).
• Let’s rank all of the Opening Day pitching matchups, topped by the one going on down in the nation’s capital.
• Angel Hernandez has lost his racial discrimination suit against MLB.
• Fernando Tatis, Jr. has just about become the face of MLB. Let’s hope he can live up to those lofty standards.
• This may be old news by the time you read it, but Yu Darvish doesn’t sound like he wants to hit this year, trusting that the DH will be adopted before the games begin.