Lots of interesting things going on today:

• The Reds optioned to Louisville Gary Majewski. I did not see that one coming, but it's nice that he won't be taking up a spot on the active roster to begin the season. Here's hoping he can get his game together with the Bats.
• Bobby Livingston will be joining Majewski in Louisville.
• Jerry Narron says it looks like it will be Matt Belisle or Kirk Saarloos in the role of fourth starter. He said fifth starter, but we already know that's really Eric Milton.
• The final bullpen spot is down to Victor Santos, Jared Burton, and Jon Coutlangus. I'm crossing my fingers for Coutlangus, personally.
• Jeff Keppinger, Bill Bray, Elizardo Ramirez, Jerry Gil, and Eddie Guardado are DL-bound. So, if you're keeping count, we won't be seeing ANY of the players we got in The Trade on Opening Day. Way to improve the team.
• Chris Denorfia, who seemed on the brink of making the Opening Day roster, will be out for six months recovering from Tommy John surgery. Dammit! With The Heartthrob out of the picture for the moment, the final roster spot appears to be between Norris Hopper and Chad Moeller. I bet I'm not the only one who thinks that Wayne Krivsky was premature in sending down Bubba Crosby.

On Monday the Reds sent down Brian Shackelford, Brad Salmon, and later we learned that Paul Janish joined them. Today the Reds also released Paul Wilson.

Too bad about Pauly; it would have been great to have seen him come back. A couple of my very first fake news stories featured Wilson: Freel, Wilson Still Sorry and Wilson Loses Arms, Says He's Fine.

Now the Wilson era, apparently like the fake news era, appears to be at an end. Maybe he'll pick up somewhere. He could hook up with Jason LaRue in KC.

The East Valley Tribune mentions the Reds today in the D-Backs Notebook under the subheading More Jorge:

Asked if he wants to be a closer, Julio has a one-word answer: “Yeah.”

Yet Julio, a part-time closer for the D-Backs last season but behind Jose Valverde this spring, said he is not fazed by reports that teams in need of a closer – Florida, San Francisco, Cincinnati – have scouted him this spring.

“I don’t care. I play baseball. I want to play baseball. It is just a rumor,” Julio said.

The D-Backs have scouted Florida and could have an interest in Marlins’ 22-year-old right-hander Yusmeiro Petit, obtained by the Marlins from the Mets two years ago. Petit struggled in the Marlins’ bullpen last season, his first in the majors, but has a strong minor league track record.

The D-Backs will not pay any of Julio’s $3.6 million salary this season if traded, making Cincinnati an unlikely trading partner.

I'm glad to hear that the Reds are still checking out their options, though the bullpen situation doesn't seem too bad to me. I'm a little baffled by the author's assertion that the price tag would take the Reds out of the equation. Florida is another of the listed teams, after all. Personally, I've known the Reds to spend way too much for relief pitching.

In other news, Rheal Cormier's name comes up in a story in this morning's Seattle Times Newspaper. JJ Putz is suffering elbow stiffness, and the author is nonplused about the prospect of bringing Cormier in as a stopgap:

The names that have been linked to those teams in trade rumors include San Francisco's Armando Benitez, Arizona's Jorge Julio, San Diego's Scott Linebrink, Washington's Chad Cordero and Texas' Akinori Otsuka. Other pitchers who could be available are Rheal Cormier and Byung-Hyun Kim, neither of whom are too inspiring.

I'm not sure what the Mariners would have to offer in exchange for Cormier anyway, since the Reds are in a position to buy, not sell, pitching right now. I imagine Krivsky is on the lookout for a lefty outfielder. Or they could flash that $3.6 million and get Julio. We could probably be convinced to part with Cormier for that.

The Reds have made round two of cuts today. To recap, on Monday they:

• Sent LHP Phil Dumatrait to AAA Louisville
• Sent OF Chris Dickerson and RHP Calvin Medlock to AA Chattanooga
• Reassigned LHP Jason Kershner and RHP Tom Shearn to minor league camp

Today they:

• Sent 1B Joey Votto to AAA Louisville
• Reassigned RHP Homer Bailey, LHP Michael Gosling, C Dan Conway, C Ryan Hannigan to minor league camp
• Released RHP Kerry Ligtenberg and RHP Brian Meadows outright to give them a chance to catch on elsewhere

I guess that means no more Brian Fellow references.

The Reds made a move to address this “hole” at closer that everyone seems to think they have by signing one Dustin Hermanson to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training on Thursday. From Reds.com:

Veteran right-hander Dustin Hermanson was signed to a Minor League contract on Thursday and invited to Spring Training as a non-roster player. Hermanson was scheduled to fly to Sarasota on Thursday night and be in camp Friday.

“He's a good guy to take a chance on, in our opinion,” Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky said.

Hermanson, who will earn $500,000 this year if he makes the team, had 34 saves and a 2.04 ERA for the White Sox in 2005. Lower back inflammation forced him out late that season during Chicago's run to a World Series title.

More importantly, from HMZ's diary:

I think it's a good deal. This is a guy who was arguably among the game's best closers as recently as 2005 (the last time he was healthy), and has pitched in the NLCS twice and in the World Series. If he makes the 25-man roster, he'll make $500,000 according to Trent's blog. If not, there will be one more arm for Rick Sweet to wave in from the bullpen in Louisville.

And if he returns to his 2005 form with the White Sox, the Reds will become the most recent team to pull their closer off of baseball's scrap heap, surpassing last year's Marlins (Joe Borowski) and Mariners (J.J. Putz), Kriv-Dawg will look like a genius, and all it will cost them is half a million recycled lithographs of George Washington.

Like they say, you can't have too much pitching, right?