Let's take a look at what the opening 25 man roster is likely to look like, barring injuries or, please Alex, a trade or a free agent signing:
Starting Pitchers:
Relief Pitchers:
Catchers:
Infielders:
Outfielders:
The only real questions to me are:
- Will they have Happ in the rotation/Rogers in the bullpen, or Rogers in the rotation/Happ in the bullpen? Likely Happ starting.
- Will they keep Jeffress and try to sneak Redmond through waivers or will they keep Redmond and try to get Jeffress through waivers? I'm not a big fan of Redmond.
- Will they make a trade? If it was me, I'd be trying to package Happ, a reliever and Izturis for a second baseman. I know that Izturis doesn't really have any trade value, but I'd like to be rid of him.
I hate the 8-man bullpen (I'm not even that thrilled with a 7 man bullpen, I'm old, I remember the days of the 5-man bullpen). How you can find enough work for all those guys?. Then you have some poor guy that throws once every two weeks and then looks bad because he is rusty. And what do you do if 2 outfielder run into each other? I think having such a short bench tends to make you want to use guys when they are a little banged up or not take a guy out of a game if he is slightly hurt.
Of course, there is a good chance someone will hit the DL by then. I don't think Janssen has thrown in a game yet, he is schedule to throw in a game early this week, but you never know. Santos has thrown just 2 innings. Happ has had the sore back and I'm sure the Jays wouldn't mind putting him on the DL and then be able to send him to Buffalo on a rehab assignment.
I would imagine that if they DL a pitcher or trade someone, and decide to go with a 7 man bullpen, Munenori Kawasaki would get the extra spot, unless they decided they want the power that Dan Johnson is showing and if they believe he could play 3B in an emergency.
What do you think?