Jon Lester will take the mound for the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day for the third time in four seasons.

"Pretty cool," Lester said of Joe Maddon's decision. "Anytime the manager picks you to do that it's a huge honor. I'm excited. It's probably the earliest I've ever been told."

Lester spent time on the disabled list last year and fell short of 200 innings and compiled a 4.33 ERA. He blamed most of it on Chicago's expending so much energy on winning the World Series in 2016.

"Last year was 'Hey, we need to slow down, we need to be ready more or less for May than April,'" he stated. "For a few of us, that put us behind the eight ball. I don't think we realized that until the end of the year."