The pitching shuffle

With two starters unavailable this weekend due to arm trouble and a newly acquired reliever that they have to fit into the staff somehow, the Pirates have some shuffling to do with their pitching staff. Today they announced that Jimmy Barthmaier will start Friday (hooray! no JVB on WHYGAVS Night!), John Van Benschoten will likely start Saturday, and the necessary reliever decision is still forthcoming. DK seems to think that Burnett, Osoria, and Beam are all candidates with Beam being likely to head down because he has options left and Burnett and Osoria likely to go away because they suck. Since the Pirates need to clear TWO roster spots, one for the newly acquired Denny Bautista and one for the Friday/Saturday starter, I'd be looking for Osoria to get his DFA and Beam to head back to Indy, then Barthmaier to go right back down after his start to make for Van Benschoten.

UPDATE (2 PM): Snell to DL. This complicates things interestingly. Until this morning they made it sound like he might pitch this weekend. Now, definitely not. As pointed out in the comments, they may not ditch a pitcher at all and send Morgan down to AAA to leave a bigger bullpen to deal with the unproven Barthmaier and the proven in the wrong was Van Benschoten.

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