So, who exactly are the bullpen options?

[dagger]

More talk about Castro from Sportsnet

Blue Jays prospect Miguel Castro’s bullpen sessions are must-see stuff. The 20-year-old right-hander left catcher Josh Thole muttering some unmentionables in awe during their session Tuesday. “Aside from the velocity, he was commanding not even his fastball, more his breaking ball. All the sliders he threw – they’re a different slider,” says Thole. “They’re hard, they’re sharp and he’s not just chucking it up there. Very much on the plate, around the plate, down in the zone and his changeup, too. I made a comment to somebody, ‘It’s a hard changeup, but I guess when you throw 100 what’s hard?’ Guys are gearing up for 100 and it’s 89 to 91, that’s quite off your fastball. I was impressed at how he was around the plate – it wasn’t a buckshot wherever.”
Looking at Castro’s six-foot-five, 190-pound frame, I asked a Blue Jays official for a physical comparison and he threw out NBA star Kevin Durant. Asked how it looks from behind the plate, Thole said: “It’s an effortless mid-90’s for sure. The ball is on you because he’s got the long arms, so essentially, he’s handing the ball to the catcher and it explodes, aside from it being 100 or whatever it is.”

[Schad]

Good to hear that the breaking ball was very sharp...I mean, it's only a spring bullpen sesh, but that's been considered the weak link of his arsenal behind his huge fastball and a changeup which many see as plus already.

Stay healthy, Miguel, and let's hope that the team doesn't get too desperate for bullpen help before September.

[satyr9]

The problem with the complete lack of vet help brought into the 'pen, even cheapish talent, isn't what the depth chart looks like now, it's what it looks like if you take your injuries/regressions in the 'pen. Last year the painful part of injuries was that we got the biggest one in our weakest spot. Maicer looked great for the start and then poof gone and we're stuck with the Goins we were all kind of terrified of and who turned out to be craptacular to the point we ended up with the platoons and Mune instead. If it's Colby who gets hurt instead of Maicer (in fact, remember the good came when he was hurt, and I'm really not trying to bag on Colby as a whole, just last year's version) we had a MLB ready replacement at AAA.

The 'pen as is looks like a MLB 'pen, perhaps even a solid one, but what happens if it's Cecil and Loup who go down this year and injury forces both Estrada and Sanchez to the rotation? That's not a crazy amount of injury to happen at the same time and could leave a 'pen starting with guys like Delabar and Redmond for high leverage and moving down to a guys like Guilmet or West for heavy work. That's where the lack of additions scares me.

Of course injuries can derail any team, I'm not trying to paint this as a unique or disastrous issue, but most teams have at least 1-2 guys in the 4-8 range who their fans can imagine being cast in a top 2-3 role in the 'pen without **** themselves.

Not that AA really had a better option. AA is relying a whole hell of a lot on his staff's ability (whether it's scouts or stats or both) to find quality talent for 2015 with really zero or almost zero MLB history and that's not something too many contending teams tend to risk. I don't know what else he could've done with the budget constraints he had, but by mid-April if a few bounces go the wrong way instead of the right way we could be looking at a very very very long season of explosive 7th through 9th innings.

I get all the points in favor of this strategy and don't necessarily disagree with them, but man would it have been nice to put 1 or 2 more arms into this squad that had done something last year that looked like a high leverage MLB level reliever. That's obviously no guarantee of anything, but I know I would've felt better.

[Santoki]

K-Rod to the Brewers for 2 years plus a club option. No terms disclosed yet.

[suntzuballin]

The article on castro sounds like he has the makings of a highend reliever,he should get a shot possibly becoming a setup man if all things algin.Just take a risk if your not willing to pay to get a closer our exp reliever