Bullpen Report: March 27, 2014

A few brief notes out of the bullpens on Thursday:

-The St. Louis Cardinals’ inked veteran right-hander David Aardsma on Wednesday to compete for a spot out of the bullpen. The Cards are looking to carry five right-handers in the ‘pen to open the regular season, and with three of the five claimed by Carlos Martinez, Pat Neshek and Trevor Rosenthal, Aardsma appears to be battling three others for the last two spots. The fantasy-relevant (to some of us) odd-man out here could potentially be Seth Maness, who finished tied with Randy Choate for the second-most holds among Cardinal arms in twenty-thirteen. Maness’ 5-2 record, 2.32 ERA and 15 holds last season may not be enough to overshadow the righty’s struggles in Cactus League play. Southpaws Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist along with flame throwing righty, Carlos Martinez, figure to be logging the majority of the holds in St. Louis this year.

-The Chicago White Sox were awarded 28-year-old Javy Guerra off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers today. Considering the veteran right-hander is out of options, he’ll likely make the White Sox Opening Day roster and be the final player on their 40-man. While Nate Jones and Matt Lindstrom appear to be battling it out for the ninth-inning nod, Guerra is a fair option with closing experience should one or both of them struggle. Guerra owns a career 2.90 ERA (3.30 FIP) with 29 saves and a 19.5% K% (10.5 BB%) in 102.1 IP.

–Koji Uehara notched his first save in one of the Red Sox final tune-ups this Spring. He fanned two of the three batters he faced en route to a Boston 4-1 victory over Minnesota to keep his ERA a perfect 0.00 in Grapefruit League play. Twins’ relievers Jared Burton and Glen Perkins surrendered three earned runs on five hits and a walk over two frames in the losing effort.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	J.J. Putz	Brad Ziegler
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter
Baltimore	Tommy Hunter	Darren O’Day	Ryan Webb
Boston	Koji Uehara	Edward Mujica	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Jose Veras	Pedro Strop	Hector Rondon	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Nate Jones	Matt Lindstrom	Ronald Belisario
Cincy	J.J. Hoover	Sam LeCure	Logan Ondrusak	Aroldis Chapman
Cleveland	John Axford	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque
Houston	Chad Qualls	Josh Fields	Matt Albers	Jesse Crain
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Joe Smith	Kevin Jepsen	Dane de la Rosa
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brian Wilson	Paco Rodriguez
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	Francisco Rodriguez	Brandon Kintzler
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Bobby Parnell	Jose Valverde	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Shawn Kelley	Matt Thornton
Oakland	Jim Johnson	Luke Gregerson	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Cook
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Jake Diekman
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Carlos Martinez	Kevin Siegrist
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Sergio Romo	Santiago Casilla	Javier Lopez	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Grant Balfour	Heath Bell	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Alexi Ogando	Jason Frasor	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Sergio Santos	Steve Delabar
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]