Alvarez down, Kela d.l.’d, Perez, Grilli active

The Texas Rangers officially announced the activation of Martin Perez, tonight’s starter, from the disabled list, as well as the addition of relief pitcher Jason Grilli, who was acquired yesterday from the Blue Jays, to the 25 man roster.

To make room for Perez and Grilli on the active roster, the Rangers have optioned lefthander Dario Alvarez to AAA Round Rock and have placed relief pitcher Keone Kela on the 10 day disabled list.

Alvarez was supposed to be a situational lefty for the Rangers, but he struggled to throw strikes and even in this bullpen full of people Jeff Banister doesn’t trust, Alvarez was becoming particularly untrusted. Kela, meanwhile, has been dealing with a shoulder issue for a couple of weeks now, and with the All Star Break a week from today, this allows the Rangers to get him a break while he potentially misses only six games.

This leaves the pen with two long men -- Austin Bibens-Dirkx and Nick Martinez — as well as a pseudo-long-man in Ernesto Frieri, and a kind-of-long-man in Alex Claudio. Now that Claudio is the lone lefty in the pen, however, one would think he’d be used more situationally, and less in lengthy stints.

The pen also has Matt Bush, Jose Leclerc, Grilli, and the just-activated-this-weekend Tony Barnette. So that’s quite the unexpected group the Rangers will be leaning on over the next week.