Cubs vs. Indians at Goodyear Preview, Saturday 3/19, 9:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- This is not good news about Cubs lefthander Jon Lester:

... a bone chip lurks in Lester’s pitching elbow, and nobody can know when or if it will break free and suddenly become an injury that requires surgery.

Baseball writer Jeff Passan first reported the existence of the bone chip in an exhaustively researched new book, The Arm, to be published the first week of April – as the Cubs, coincidentally, open one of the most anticipated, significant seasons in franchise history.

Passan describes an MRI Lester’s agents arranged after the 2014 season that produced a largely glowing report on the shoulder and elbow, except that "a little grenade floated near his ligament, and at some point it would warrant surgery."

I've got a review copy of Passan's book and will post about it here soon. Let's hope Lester can make it through the season without that "grenade" going off. If he can do that, maybe he could have offseason surgery and be 100 percent by 2017.

With that little nugget out of the way, here are the rest of today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Zobrist 2B, Russell SS, Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Soler RF, Baez CF, Guzman 1B, Federowicz C, Johnson P

Indians lineup:

Lindor SS, Kipnis 2B, Brantley LF, Santana DH, Napoli 1B, Gomes C, Venable RF, Naquin CF, Urshela 3B

Most of Cleveland's regulars start tonight. It's the first spring game for Michael Brantley, who is coming back from a shoulder injury.

Pierce Johnson gets the start for the Cubs. Among other Cubs pitchers listed for tonight: Felix Pena, Carl Edwards Jr., Justin Grimm and Neil Ramirez.

Corey Kluber starts for the Indians.

Today's game is on 670 The Score with Len Kasper and Ron Coomer. No TV for this one.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Indians site Let's Go Tribe. If you do go there to interact with Indians fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

Please note that during spring training, Gameday doesn't usually go pitch-by-pitch as it does during the regular season -- usually, it will update after each at-bat.

For spring-training games, we'll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time (because I know how you all like overflow threads!). For today, that will be 9 p.m. CT and 10:30 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher boxes and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.