He said the team will keep Martinez in the bullpen for now, and that only an extended absence from Kelly would cause them to rethink the setup assignment for Martinez.

He could be ready to start soon, though, Matheny said.

"If we needed somebody for an extended period of time it would make sense to give him the ball," Matheny said. "You’d be looking at stretching him out (now) just to slow him back down again. This is one of those scenarios where we don’t really know how long it’s going to be. It’s not set in stone where we could take that risk of pulling him out and getting him going just to slow him down again. … If we knew this was something that we knew was going to create a spot for a long time we would definitely take that into consideration. Right now we’re going to stick with our ‘pen how it is."

During spring training, Kelly edged Martinez for the only opening in the rotation. It was said at the time that Martinez would get a crack at starting this season if there was an opening.