J.D. Durbin

And the annual bullpen shuffle begins, as the Red Sox have claimed J.D. Durbin from the Diamondbacks. From what I've read about him in the last ten minutes, mostly here, he seems like a million-dollar-arm/ten-cent-head type - too bad he already nicknamed himself "The Real Deal." He didn't make the Twins out of Spring Training (no shame in that - their 'pen is loaded), and was claimed by the Diamondbacks just before the regular season. He pitched two-thirds of a crappy inning in the desert, and they waived him again. Sounds like a winner!

My main concern is the corresponding move they have to make to put him on the 25-man roster. Timlin's supposed to be back tomorrow for the home opener, so I assume that Javier Lopez will be sent down to make room for him; the only other guy in the bullpen right now with options (other than Papelbon) is Okajima, and I can't see them sending him down now and leaving the team with only one lefty (Romero). Perhaps they'll pull their patented "Brendan Donnelly has a hangnail, or something, and he has to go on the DL" thing. That's always fun.

It would be amazing if they tried to get Durbin through waivers, too, and the A's claimed him (they put in a claim when Arizona got him, according to Gammons). He could just keep getting passed around all of the sabermetrically-inclined teams in the league without actually pitching.