Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said Friday that Lopez will open the season in the team's rotation, Gabe Burns of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Lopez is coming off a lost 2025 season, having made just one start before undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder. He's in Atlanta's camp with a clean bill of health, although it will be interesting to see in spring training how his stuff looks post-surgery. Lopez was an All-Star for Atlanta in 2024, finishing with a 1.99 ERA and 148:42 K:BB over 135.2 innings.