Carlos Villanueva will start the season in the Cardinals bullpen

Carlos Villanueva will start the season in the Cardinals bullpen.

The Cardinals pitching staff gained some clarity on Monday morning, when the club announced that former Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Villanueva has made the 25-man roster and will work out of the bullpen.  Just one decision needs to be made and that is who will be the team’s fifth starter.

As far as the bullpen, it will be Villaneuva, with righties Trevor Rosenthal, Jordan Walden, Seth Maness, and Matt Belisle along with southpaws Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist. With those seven, Mike Matheny has just one more decision to make and that’s on his fifth starter.  Whoever loses the job, either Carlos Martinez or Marco Gonzales, will most likely be sent to Triple-A to continue as a starter.

Villanueva has allowed six earned runs on 14 hits this spring.  76 of his 390 games have been starts spread over two years with Chicago and Toronto and five years with Milwaukee.  Villanueva is 45-50 with a 4.26 career ERA.