News: Santana still aiming for Opening Day
According to multiple reports (see below), 
Johan Santana will not, or may not, pitch Opening Day.
From what I can gather, out of people connected to the team, basically, this is all up in the air, and depends entirely on how Santana does over the next few weeks, while working from Dan Warthen’s pitching plan (again, see below).
In other words, if everything goes well, and Santana stays on target, he could still pitch Opening Day – in fact, the team is still operating as though this will be the case.
However, if he is forced to adjust in any way, instead, his first start will likely be at some point during the first week of the season – and this is just fine with team, so long as he makes his 34 starts.
In other words, the date of his first start is not nearly as important as him making all of his starts.
The thing is, to me, this is all just long-term thinking anyway.
I will not be totally comfortable with any of this until I see him take the mound in a spring training game, pitch well and feel no pain.
Then, and only then, will I waste time thinking about Opening Day, or the 33 starts after that.
