Seth McClung was sent down to Triple-A Durham today. That's obviously the right move, now let's see if the DRO can be intelligent and just leave him there to pitch until he's actually READY for the majors.
Taking his spot is thirty-one year old Lee Gardner, a career minor leaguer whose only major league experience was 13.1 innings with the Rays in 2002. For his minor league career prior to this season he had pitched 389 innings, all in relief, with a 3.15 ERA. His career K/BB ratio is 7.89/2.50.
This season at Durham he has thrown 22.1 innings with a 2.01 ERA. His K/BB is 17/6 and he has given up four home runs. Obviously he's nothing special, particularly considering his age (after all, 30 year old rookies with minimum experience in the majors never exceed reasonable expectations, even for a short period of time) but he should be decent enough in middle relief, maybe an ERA of 4.25-4.50 or so, acceptable in that role, particularly considering what he is replacing.
Jose Diaz was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man for Gardner. He might make it through waivers, might now, but I'm pretty sure it won't really matter anyway.