Bowden Francis

Gausman will be followed by Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to close out the season-opening series against the division-rival Orioles. It'll be Bowden Francis taking the ball on Monday night to kick off a three-game series against the Nationals with Opening Day starter Jose Berrios following afterwards.

Francis struck out four in his best Grapefruit League performance. He ends the spring with a 7.63 ERA and a 16/7 K/BB in 15 1/3 innings. That's obviously not great, but his stock is essentially unchanged from a month ago.

Francis was a little unlucky today; he struck out five, and just five of the 12 balls in play against him were hit hard. His spring ERA stands at 10.80, but there's still nothing alarming here. If he was high on your list a month ago, what's happened since shouldn't have had much of an effect on his stock.

Burleson was in an 0-for-9 slump that had left him with a .200 average through 30 at-bats. The homer today off Bowden Francis was his second of the spring. It appears that he's fighting Nolan Gorman to serve as the Cardinals' DH against right-handers. He should win out there, but the Cardinals really don't want to write off Gorman, who was going to be the team's third baseman if a Nolan Arenado trade got done.

Francis gave up seven hits, including a homer to Alec Bohm, and walked three before coming out. Blame the fastball: all 11 balls in play he allowed came on the 32 times he threw that pitch. Meanwhile, he was untouched the 41 times he threw splitters and breaking balls. Francis has a 12.15 ERA in three starts this spring, but his rotation spot is safe and his stock hasn't changed much.