Minnesota Twins probable pitchers for opening series against Kansas City Royals

Opening Day is almost here, but the Minnesota Twins aren't in a very festive mood. Injuries have already started to pile up on the team, with four pitchers set to start the season on the IL.

Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar, and Justin Topa are all key relievers who will miss time, with starter Anthony DeSclafani likely headed for season-ending surgery. Beyond that, players like Byron Buxton and Max Kepler were both scratched from lineups in the last week of Spring Training and top prospect Brooks Lee needed to exit what turned out to be his final game of the spring with bakc spasms.

Keep in mind, Opening Day isn't until Thursday which means all of this is piling up before the seaosn even starts.

When the season does arrive, the Twins will be in Kansas City facing a team that spent over $100 million in free agency to try and force its way back into the AL Central race. Many of the moves the Royals made were ones folks thought Minnesota might make, and we'll see how things stack up starting on Thursday.

Minnesota Twins probable pitchers for opening series vs. Royals

Not all of the news this week was bad. While the injuries were less than ideal to hear about, the Twins also announced the first three starting pitchers of the season.

Here's a look at who the Twins will be sending out for the first series of the season:

The rotation took a bit of a hit with the loss of DeSclafani, but that simply opened a lane for Louie Varland to sneak onto the 26-man roster. He won't make a start until Minnesota's series against the Milwaukee Brewers, but having him up gives the Twins another potentially exicting young arm to watch develop.

Ober, who will start the third game against Kansas City, was that player last year. He worked his way into a role that saw him starting Game 1 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros and his spring performance suggests he's in for a breakout year.

This will also mark back-to-back years that Pablo Lopez starts Opening Day for the Twins. Not only that, he's starting in the same exact place he did last season as Minnesota opened things up against the Royals in Kansas City.

Minnesota got off to a hot start a year ago, with the offense waking up right out of the gate -- even though we all know how much that cooled soon after. Pitching was the biggest strength the Twins had last season, and that's the unit the team will need a hot start out of to wash out the bad taste the end of Spring Training has left in the mouths of fans.

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