John Fay, and C. Trent Rosecrans

CIN

GOODYEAR, Ariz . – The Reds will break camp with the roster unset. The Brett Marshall injury and the fact that Devin Mesoraco is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day further complicate an already complicated situation.

"There are just a lot of balls in the air right now," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "I wish I could be more direct with you guys. But I think I'm being as direct as I can be. I really don't know. I don't know who's going to be on this team.

Price said he was going to meet with general manager Walt Jocketty on Thursday.

"We've discussed it already just trying to figure out what to do with the 40-man roster and what moves to make to accommodate the players we're going to need to add to the roster are very, very painful decisions to make," Price said. "Certainly there's a chance we could lose some players over the course of these transactions with the guys moving to the 40-man, 25-man roster. I don't think we're going to take it all the way up to Opening Day. But I can't answer your questions right now."

Everyone in camp, except some of the players on the disabled list, will go with the team to Pensacola for Friday's exhibition. That includes Roger Bernadina and Chris Nelson, non-roster players who have outs in their contracts.

Price said for the first time Thursday that Mesoraco (oblique) is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day.

"We haven't made a complete commitment," Price said. "It's unlikely that he would be. We haven't signed off that we wouldn't be ready at some point in time in that first series. Today's probably a very important day for that.

"I think it would be unlikely that we'll have Devin on Opening Day, but maybe for a change I'll be pleasantly surprised."

Mesoraco said he took batting practice on Thursday and felt fine afterward.

Neftali Soto caught two innings Wednesday. Is there a chance the Reds would go into the opener with him as the backup catcher if Mesoraco is close?

"We could," Price said. "There are a lot of things we could do. If we would realistically do that, I don't know. I guess it would depend on if (Mesoraco) were deemed potentially healthy by the last game of the series with St. Louis.

"The bottom line is he's got to play. It's been 10 days off since his last game. He's got to catch and throw, hit, hit live pitching. That's a lot to accomplish in a short time. We have not – as of this point in time – decided to put him on the disabled list."

ROUGH SPRING: Reliever J.J. Hoover, who could get save opportunities with Aroldis Chapman on the disabled list, started Thursday's game against the Brewers and gave up a run on two hits with two walks in an inning. That raised his spring ERA to 5.63, allowing runs in six of his eight appearances (although the runs were unearned in three of those).

"He got to this point last year in spring where he never was all the way locked in. I'm hoping he gets off to a better start this year," Price said. "He made some good adjustments (Thursday) after Mack (Jenkins) went out to the mound to talk to him. More than anything it comes down to getting connected to his delivery. It's been coming and going so far this spring. The focus and everything gets better when you're in a regular-season game. I'd certainly like to see the guys performing at a high level before we get the season going."

Another of the team's veteran relievers, Sam LeCure, finished spring with a 7.00 ERA in nine one-inning outings, including two runs in an inning on Tuesday and another run in one inning on Wednesday.

Like Hoover, Price said there's no concern with LeCure.

"They're both working on a slider, throwing less conventionally, throwing more breaking pitches when they'd typically use their fastball more," Price said. "Some guys are stepping outside of character to try to develop a little bit more, or develop another pitch before the season starts. I think we'll see something that more resembles their style of pitching once the season starts."

STRONG FINISH: If final impressions are important, several Reds made good ones on Thursday, as both of the split squads won their games. At Goodyear, the Reds defeated the Diamondbacks 9-1, while another Reds team beat the Brewers 8-2 in Maryvale.

In Maryvale, Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-3 with a home run, his first of the spring to finish the spring with a .303 average, while Bernadina finished the spring with a .413 average, going 1-for-2. Right-handers Pedro Beato and Jumbo Diaz each pitched scoreless innings in Maryvale in front of Price.

"It is for guys that are on the team, it's a different matter when you're trying to make the club. It's completely different for everyone," Price said.

"Someone who is trying to make the club isn't taking any risks, just trying to go out there and perform every day and I get it. Our good fortune is that the guys who have a club are good performers. It'll make it even harder for us to make our final decisions."

MARSHALL HURT: As for Brett Marshall, he felt something in his finger during the third inning of Wednesday's start against the White Sox, but continued to pitch.

Marshall was scheduled to start for the Reds on April 6 in New York but will not be able to with the injury. He had an MRI after Wednesday's game with the White Sox and was expected to meet with a specialist in Phoenix on Thursday.

"It's a strange injury, on a kid's last spring training game before most likely getting that assignment to be our fifth starter, at least for one start, and then you have this type – it's just a strange injury," Price said.

"It's certainly not unheard-of, but it's it's not a common injury."

Price said he suffered the injury "just throwing the ball." At the time of the initial injury, Marshall told him it felt like it was just a cramp.

"Throwing a baseball and you strain a tendon in your finger," Price said, before adding, "I just don't want anyone crossing the street right now."

The Reds already have six players scheduled to start the season on the disabled list, if Marshall and Mesoraco join the DL, the Reds will start with eight players on the DL, their most to start a season since 2007.