Vicente Padilla will get the call when the Dodgers start spring training action on March 5. Joe Torre stopped short of saying who will get the Opening Day nod in April.
What we do know, however, is that Padilla will be followed by Eric Stults, Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, and Hiroki Kuorda to start the spring.
The most interesting case is Stults, who's out of options. Simply put, if he doesn't make the team out of spring training, he most likely will end up elsewhere. So, it appears as if Torre is going to give him every chance to be the fifth starter.
The article mentions that a fifth starter won't be needed in the regular season until April 11, then the home opener is April 12. But, the real schedule says that home opener is April 13, so I'm guessing the article has a typo. Plus, with an off day after the first game April 5, the Opening Day starter can come back on normal rest in the fifth game on April 10.
So the bottom line is, I'm not sure when a fifth starter would be needed. The Dodgers have off days on two straight Monday's (April 12 and April 19), so according to my calculations, they can go with a four-man rotation until Saturday, April 24 in Washington, when a fifth starter would be needed.
Yes, it's confusing, and I could be wrong about all of this, but I'm taking educated guesses based on off-days. It's very possible a fifth starter could be used much earlier to give the other arms an extra day of rest.
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