St. Louis Cardinals 2014 Preview: One of these three righthanders will make the opening-day bullpen

Entering spring training, the bullpen was a question mark for the Cardinals in the sense that we didn't know which would-be starters would fill it. Then Jaime Garcia got injured, the starting rotation competition became more focused, and the bullpen picture became foggier. Over the past few days, however, the composition of the St. Louis relief corps has cleared up a bit. This weekend, the Cardinals made announcements that finalized two bullpen spots:

• The organization outrighted righthander Angel Castro and gave the spot on the 40-man roster that opened as a result to righthanded sidewinder Pat Neshek, ensuring him a job in the St. Louis opening day bullpen.
• Manager Mike Matheny declared Joe Kelly the Cards' No. 5 starter and relegated Carlos Martinez to the role of setup man in the big-league bullpen.

Right now, the opening-day bullpen consists of the following players:

1. Randy Choate, LHP
2. Kevin Siegrist, LHP
3. Trevor Rosenthal, RHP
4. Carlos Martinez, RHP
5. Seth Maness, RHP
6. Pat Neshek, RHP
7. ??????????????, RHP

There are three righties competing for the ultimate opening-day bullpen spot (which is effectively the job of placeholder until Jason Motte is able to return to big-league action). Each is an organizational warrior who has fought his way up the organizational ladder.

Keith Butler

Butler made his MLB debut a season ago and wasn't particularly impressive. Butler is not going to blow you away with raw stuff like so many of the up-and-coming Birdo hurlers. His four-seam fastball averaged 91.89 mph in the majors last year and he mixed in a high-80s sinker with a curve and change. Earlier this offseason, Fourstick profiled Butler in the VEB Other 15 series (with video) and assessed Butler's repertoire as follows:

Butler throws slightly across his body, hiding the ball well, and you can see that his curveball comes out of a very similar arm slot as his fastball, making it harder to define the pitch that's coming until it's nearly out of his hand. You can see, however, that it's got a bit of a "hop" in it when it breaks, which makes it easier to lay off. That's likely why he's developed a changeup, which will allow him to change speeds and fade the ball away from LHH. Which he sorely needs as his 4.73 SIERA and 5.09 FIP against lefties at Memphis last year just isn't going to cut it.

BUTLER'S CAREER STATS

Butler is currently on the 40-man roster, which means the Cardinals will not have to open a spot should they decide to name him to the opening-day bullpen.

Jorge Rondon

The Cardinals signed Rondon as an international free agent when he was a teenager and the righty got his professional start in the Venezuelan Summer League. Since then, Rondon has matured into a hurler with enticing stuff. In Fourstick's Other 15 profile of the righty (once again with video), he writes:

Rondon features a plus fastball, regularly hitting 96-98 and touching 100 occasionally, as well as a slider labeled "best in the organization" by Derrick Goold when dissecting the orgs top tools for Baseball America prior to last season.

The problem for Rondon is that he has consistently had problems controlling his repertoire. The result is that, year after year, he's posted walk rates comfortably in the double digits.

RONDON'S CAREER STATS

Scott McGregor

McGregor is a non-prospect who is entering his sixth season with the franchise. He lost 2011 and part of 2012 to Tommy John surgery. Last season, McGregor was healthy for the first time in years and posted great numbers in Springfield before getting promoted to Memphis, where he was decent. It was somewhat surprising earlier in spring training when the Cardinals reassigned McGregor from minor-league camp to the big-league camp. Perhaps they organization didn't like what they were seeing from Butler and Rondon. At any rate, McGregor is now in the mix.

MCGREGOR'S CAREER STATS

McGregor is not on the 40-man roster, which means the Cardinals will have to free up a spot in order to include him in the opening-day relief corps.