With a slew of roster moves on Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates pared their roster down to essentially 26 players, leaving just one bullpen slot to be determined.
All of yesterday’s jostling really only served to set the fringe roster positions. Craig Monroe was confirmed as the fourth outfielder on the strength of his six spring homers and his right-handed bat, Luis Cruz made the cut thanks to his good glove, and Jeff Karstens won the fifth rotation spot by default. That leaves Jeff Salazar, Garret Jones, Virgil Vasquez, Jason Davis, Chris Bootcheck, Andy Phillips, and Denny Bautista all demoted to AAA today and Romulo Sanchez removed from the 40-man roster to make room for Monroe.
With Neal Huntington confirming Matt Capps, Tyler Yates, and John Grabow in the bullpen and Phil Dumatrait destined for the disabled list, that means that there are four spots to be had between Craig Hansen, Evan Meek, Jesse Chavez, Sean Burnett, and Donnie Veal. With Hansen and Burnett out of options and Veal being an intriguing Rule 5 pick that Huntington seems to have no intrerest in returning to Chicago despite his control struggles, I think that really leaves one spot for Chavez and Meek. Meek has struggled with arm problems and bronchitis this spring, so he might be headed for AAA even though I think he’s a little more talented than Chavez. He’ll get his chance in Pittsburgh at one point or another this year, though.
The key is to not think about how awful a Capps, Yates, Grabow, Hansen, Veal, Burnett, Chavez bullpen would be. Can you imagine a night when Veal, Yates, and Hansen are the first guys available out of the pen? We’ll never see a strike thrown.
Topics: Andy Phillips, Chris Bootcheck, Craig Hansen, Craig Monroe, Denny Bautista, Donnie Veal, Evan Meek, Garrett Jones, Jason Davis, Jeff Karstens, Jeff Salazar, Jesse Chavez, Luis Cruz, Sean Burnett, Virgil Vasquez
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