A Chad Durbin "hmmm."

Barring injury, the bullpen blueprint looks fairly certain, with Neftali Feliz anchoring a group that might map out with Alexi Ogando and Darren Oliver late, a combination of Arthur Rhodes, Mark Lowe, and Darren O'Day in the sixth and seventh, and Matt Harrison in long relief. If Derek Holland doesn't secure a rotation spot, maybe he gets that Dustin Nippert role rather than Harrison, and for that matter fifth starter candidates Michael Kirkman and Dave Bush are also going to be in the mix. Then there are Yoshinori Tateyama, Pedro Strop, Seth McClung, and Mason Tobin, too, and if Tanner Scheppers is untouchable all spring . . . maybe the result is that a reliever or two deserving of a spot on the staff ends up back in Round Rock, rather than a bubble arm shoehorned onto the Opening Day roster. You can count me in the group that believes Feliz and Ogando are going to end up right back in the roles they flourished in last year after their rotation auditions reach the middle of March, but my conviction's going to waver a little if there's anything to this solitary Peter Gammons tweet from yesterday afternoon: Chad Durbin may head for Clearwater Thurs. if Rays, Rangers don't move. Still intrigued by Boston offer as starter. Durbin is a pretty solid veteran reliever, building off a solid walk rate (3.6 per nine innings) in 2008 and a solid strikeout rate (8.0) in 2009 by combining the two (3.5/8.3) in 2010 as he led the Phillies in bullpen innings. Philadelphia, which paid Durbin $2.125 million last year, hasn't jumped at bringing him back – which makes sense, since I've learned from the mainstream national media that the Phillies is just going to go with a 12-man bench since they won't need any relief pitchers this season – but if he were to land here, it may be a pretty good indication that Lowe, for instance, may be counted on in a bigger role because of Feliz or Ogando's transition to the rotation. If you were Durbin, would you sign here? If it's a minor league deal he's faced with choosing, as long as he had an out to take a big league roster spot elsewhere before camp ends, he'd get his innings in here, with Feliz and Ogando on a starter's schedule the first half of the Cactus League schedule, and physical issues that could limit the work assigned to a handful of other pitchers early on (which is also the reason that righthander Yhency Brazoban was given a camp invite yesterday after his December minor league deal came without one). But otherwise, for a 33-year-old who's been a pretty dependable bullpen asset the last three years (3.62 ERA), Texas may not make the most sense for him. The more interesting issue, it would seem, is what it would mean for the Rangers to stay in this hunt until the end, not because anyone questions the front office's mandate to take advantage of any opportunity to make the club better, but because it might signal that the Rangers are dead serious about the idea not only that they're better with Feliz or Ogando in the rotation but also that the time for the transition to take place is not a year or two down the road, but right now.