Peters shifts to the bullpen

Straily, Chen back as rotation gets healthy

MIAMI — Slowly, the Marlins rotation has become whole.

With right-hander Dan Straily’s return from a right forearm strain on Monday night against Philadelphia, Miami welcomed back another starter who was absent on the Opening Day roster. Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen made his first start in almost a year on Saturday night.

Chen and Straily were originally cast as stabilizers for an otherwise young and unproven corps of starting pitchers. But the group has come on recently — owning a 0.92 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 29 innings the past five games — putting manager Don Mattingly in a tough but welcome position. He had too many starters.

“Those are the tough calls you really end up making,” Mattingly said.

To solve the logjam, Mattingly shifted left-hander Dillon Peters to the bullpen, keeping Straily, Chen, Jose Urena, Jarlin Garcia and Caleb Smith in the rotation. Right-hander Tyler Cloyd was placed on the paternity list to clear roster space for Straily.

Cloyd will be out for the next three days and is eligible to return Friday against Cincinnati, when Mattingly and the Marlins will have to choose who stays in the majors and who goes down. Cloyd, Peters and Merandy Gonzalez all have options remaining.

“We’ll just have to make a decision which route we want to go,” Mattingly said.

In the meantime, Peters will serve as a reliever, a role he’s never taken on as a professional. All 11 of his majorleague appearances have come as a starter. All 48 of his minor-league outings have come as a starter.

In five starts with Miami this season, he owns a 5.84 ERA marred by a nine-run, 2 performance in Philadelphia on April 7. Mattingly said Peters would be used in long relief while he’s in the ’pen.

Mattingly admitted, though, that Peters’ longterm development “should be starting, for sure.”

The Marlins haven’t had the luxury of moving starters into relief in recent years. Last year, stung by injuries to Chen and Edinson Volquez and ineffectiveness from Tom Koehler and Justin Nicolino, Miami cycled through 12 starting pitchers.

The year before, the Marlins used 13 starters, including Jake Esch, Paul Clemens, Colin Rea and Kendry Flores.

“We know that you can’t sustain anything without being able to pitch with your starting rotation and having depth there,” Mattingly said. “That’s really what we’re going to have to be able to do to compete. It takes so much pressure off your team when they pitch like that.”

SEAN M. HAFFEY/GETTY IMAGES While Dillon Peters is going to the bullpen for now, the Marlins absolutely see his future as a starter.