The Kansas City Royals knew that a roster crunch was in the forecast this week, with Michael Wacha and Cole Ragans returning to the active roster from the IL.
On Tuesday, they took the opportunity to make some necessary trims to the bench by optioning struggling utility man Nick Loftin to Triple-A to make room for Wacha.
Now, when Ragans was slated to return on Wednesday, the likelihood that the Royals shifted their focus to the bullpen for the corresponding move was high, and there were multiple names KC could have demoted that would work to reshape and revitalize the bullpen.