As I talked about in my post the other day about what will happen when Doug Davis returns to the rotation, D-backs beat writer Steve Gilbert answered some mailbag questions regarding this same topic. Here is the full answer Gilbert gives to the question:
This has been a very popular question of Bob Melvin over the past 10 days or so and he continues to give some version of "We'll see what happens." Looking at the situation, I would think that Scherzer will stay in the big leagues, but be moved to the bullpen. He's pitched well and earned the right to stay in the big leagues. And the bullpen makes sense for him right now because, one, it would be hard to take someone else out of the rotation right now, and two, by pitching him out of the bullpen the team can also limit his pitches, which is something they want to make sure they do in his first full professional season.
The hard part is going to be making room for him down there. Two of the pitchers, Edgar Gonzalez and Brandon Medders, are out of Minor League options and therefore would have to be placed on waivers if the club tried to send them down. So if I had to guess, I would say Scherzer to the bullpen with a tough corresponding move to follow.
So, Gilbert like my option two of sending down either Gonzalez or Medders and leaving Max Scherzer in the pen. While I agree that keeping Scherzer up at the big club will be important, I think it makes more sense to keep him in a starting rotation and send him down to keep his work going on a consistent basis. There's nothing worse than having a great arm languishing out in the bullpen.
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