McAdam: With little fanfare, Red Sox arrive at Opening Day bullpen mix

There was no big announcement from Alex Cora, or any sort of declaration, but with a few last-day-in-Florida cuts executed on Saturday morning, the Red Sox all but eliminated any mystery of what their bullpen is going to look like for at least the first week of the season.

Optioned to Pawtucket were Marcus Walden and Bobby Poyner -- two surprise members of the 2018 Opening Day roster -- while Darwinzon Hernandez was optioned to Double-A Portland.

And with that, barring some unanticipated roster claim or deal, the 2019 Red Sox bullpen was unofficially assembled. Or, at least, version 1.0.

There will be changes, of course, and probably before the team returns to Boston for its home opener. There's a good possibility Dustin Pedroia will have built up additional strength by then and be ready to be activated. That will necessitate one pitcher being trimmed from the bullpen since, without Pedroia, the Sox have opted to start the year with 13 pitchers and 12 position players. Pedroia's availability with flip that roster construct around.

For now, in addition to their five-man rotation, here are the eight relievers set to begin the season Thursday in Seattle: Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, Heath Hembree, Brandon Workman, Tyler Thornburg, Brian Johnson, Hector Velazquez and Colten Brewer.

If that group doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, you're not alone.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Bullpen construction is fluid.

As noted above, Poyner and Walden each made the Opening Day roster last spring. Walden didn't make it to Boston, six games into the season and Poyner was optioned out soon after. The two made several returns over the course of the season, in part because they both had options, making their demotion and subsequent recall easier when injuries or poor performance by others interceded.

In fact, options -- or lack thereof -- help explain the presence of both Workman and Thornburg, neither of whom wowed anyone in Grapefruit League action. In the case of Workman, the Sox have to hope that his diminished velocity this spring is temporary and with time, will improve -- just as it did a year ago.

Thornburg is a different case. The Sox are attempting to be patient as he comes back from thoracic outlet surgery in June of 2017. The results this spring were, to be charitable, uneven (10.5 ERA, 2.667 WHIP in six appearances). But Thornburg did display better velocity and late movement with his fastball, both of which were absent last season.

There may be another reason for the Sox' patience with him: he's all the Sox have to show for the (for now) disastrous trade that sent Travis Shaw and three prospects to the Milwaukee Brewers and buying him out of his non-guaranteed contract (which the Sox can still do until Monday afternoon) would not represent a good look.

The bullpen is likely to get tested early.

On one hand, the Red Sox are fortunate. On their first road swing of the season, the schedule-maker has them playing two teams (Seattle and Arizona) which almost certainly won't be competing for a playoff spot and a third (Oakland) which must, for now, be considered a postseason longshot.

Additionally, although the A's possess some firepower in their lineup (Khris Davis, Matt Davidson), in general, none of the three clubs up first represent much of an offensive threat.

But because the Red Sox were (properly) careful with their starting pitchers during spring training, none is necessarily ready to deliver 100 pitches in the first go-round. That will mean shortened outings, with some starters not expected to go much beyond five innings.

That will require Cora and pitching coach Dana LeVangie to sometimes get as many as 12 outs from their relievers during the first week. Things will be further complicated when the Sox use a sixth starter (either Johnson or Velazquez) for the final game of the trip in Phoenix on April 7, which will mean one of the bullpen arms will be unavailable for the first two games (at minimum) of the Diamondbacks series.

There's still no closer plan in place.

Well, maybe that's not entirely accurate. But there's no publicly disclosed closer plan in place.

The suspicion has been for some time that Cora and LeVangie have known since before the start of spring training how they would handle the ninth inning, but in order to not have the issue serve as a spring-long distraction, have kept it under wraps.

Cora has playfully told reporters that the plan will be unveiled Thursday night at T-Mobile Field in Seattle -- assuming, that is, the Red Sox have a lead of three runs or fewer heading into the bottom of the ninth.

That's served to diffuse the matter somewhat. The most likely scenario would have Barnes and Brasier trading off closing duties, depending on availability and matchups.

Together, they have combined for exactly two (2) saves in their careers. And yet, that's not the most potentially troublesome aspect of the current bullpen.

Rather, it's this: with Barnes and Brasier moving a rung up the ladder, as it were, the onus will be on the likes of Workman, Hembree and Thornburg to handle the high-leverage spots in the seventh and eighth that Barnes and Brasier took care of last season.