With Luke Hudson’s MRI coming back negative for structural damage, but positive for inflammation, he has been shut down from throwing for up to two weeks. That effectively removes him from the opening day rotation. I’d suspect he’d start the year out on the DL and do a months rehab in AAA to build his innings up before he is ready to rejoin the rotation.
That leaves Harang and Claussen, who have both pitched pretty well this spring as the likely winners for rotation slots four and five. That leaves Hancock and Robertson, who have both pitched pretty well also, as contenders for the last two spots in the bullpen. Valentine and Acevedo are doing their best to eliminate themselves from contention for these spots. So their primary competition right now seems to be Coffey, Wagner, and maybe Keisler and Stone.
First round of cuts are scheduled to be made before Wed. game. It will be interesting to see if any of the bullpen arms are whittled down in the the first cut.
Later,
Tom