The Milwaukee Brewers narrowed down the pool of potential candidates for the final two spots in their bullpen Sunday by optioning right-hander Brandon Kintzler to Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Kintzler hasn't pitched in the minor leagues since 2012, as he's spent the last two full seasons with the Brewers. He came to camp with an inside track at making the Opening Day roster, but he has struggled this spring.
In eight spring appearances, Kintzler has a 6.48 ERA in 8 1/3 innings.
"Whether it is just confidence or whether his stuff isn't the same, that's hard to say," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said recently. "We need to see a little more out of him."
Kintzler has made 135 appearances over the past two seasons with Milwaukee, posting a 2.69 ERA as the team's primary set-up man in 2013 and a 3.24 ERA as a middle reliever in 2014.
The 30-year-old pitched through a knee injury for most of last season that later required surgery.
Kintzler avoided arbitration this offseason by agreeing to a one-year, $1.075 million contract with the Brewers. He has two minor-league options remaining, meaning he can be freely called up and sent down by Milwaukee in 2015 and 2016 if he remains on the 40-man roster.
Five spots are spoken for in Milwaukee's bullpen, as Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathan Broxton, Will Smith, Jeremy Jeffress and Neal Cotts are locks to make the roster. That leaves Tyler Thornburg, Chris Perez, Michael Blazek and Rob Wooten competing for two openings.
The Brewers must tell Perez, a non-roster invitee, if he's made the 25-man roster by Tuesday.
"Coming into camp, we thought what we were going to be with those five spots in the bullpen," Roenicke said Saturday. "We didn't know those last two. Now we have a bunch of candidates who could be in those last two spots.
"We really have some tough decisions. We've been going back and forth. Everybody has a different opinion. Not just the bullpen, but also the last two spots on the bench. I hate to say it, but I'm a little baffled on which way to go. Every one of them makes sense in a certain way. Every one of them brings a certain quality that we would need on this team. Now we would have to figure out which one would be used more often."
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