David Bednar has been optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis to make room for Thomas Harrington on the active roster and Jason Delay has been designated for assignment to make room for him on the 40-man roster. 

Bednar's struggles have been apparent over the last year as he recorded a 5.77 ERA after throwing 57 2/3 innings over 62 appearances last season. He blew seven saves, gave up nine home runs and walked 28 batters. They've also continued this season. In three appearances, Bednar's ERA has ballooned to 27.00 as he's thrown one inning and given up four hits, four runs, three earned, one home run, two walks and one strikeout.

"I think it’s important for us, like we have to get him right," Shelton said of demoting Bednar. "He’s going to be a big part of our bullpen. We see him going down, getting right, coming back and being part of our bullpen. It’s a challenging conversation, but right now it’s about making sure we get David Bednar back to the status he was before."

As far as what the Pirates are looking for Bednar to improve on, Shelton didn't divulge any specifics but did say that is something the team's pitching group will address. However, he didn't mince his words when saying there is room for improvement moving forward.

"It seems like what the pitch mix is, pitch locations, whether it’s a delivery thing, all those things are what our pitching group will focus on and talk to David," Shelton said. "I think, you guys have always known this, the specifics of that, we never really discuss that. There is some room for improvement there and that’s what were looking for."

Here's Shelton's full media availability from today:

During his struggles last season, Shelton backed Bednar consistently and shared that he still had confidence in him. However, coming into this season, Shelton never named Bednar the closer, despite him appearing in the ninth inning for all three of his appearances. As the struggles continued, a decision needed to be made and it came today.

With Bednar going down, it's unclear who will work in the ninth inning role moving forward. Shelton said they have not specifically targeted one person to pitch in that spot but one could guess that Dennis Santana or Ryan Borucki could fill that role as Colin Holderman has also struggled early this season. 

"In terms of actual roles, some of it will depend on who’s available and then more importantly, right now, I don’t think there’s one specific person that we’ve targeted to pinch the ninth," Shelton said. 

• Harrington's call up also won't change the status of Carmen Mlodzinski. Shelton said today that Mlodzinski will stay in the rotation and they will know more about how that will work as they proceed through the next few weeks.

• Andrew McCutchen is out of the lineup today for the second straight game, but Shelton said he is fine. Just another game off as Bryan Reynolds hits in the designated hitter spot.

• On Jason Delay being designated for assignment: "Another challenge. We had a couple today with people that are really good human beings. In terms of decisions, I think the thing with JD is that we came into spring training with four catchers on our 40-man, and that's very rare. As we got into camp, Henry's development continued to go well and bottom of the roster decisions are always challenging. This is one that ultimately he became a casualty in." 

• On acquiring Alexander Canario, who has not joined the team yet: "I think when we get him, we'll have a better idea. He's a guy that has some impact in the bat, right-handed hitter, so those are the things we really liked. He had a good spring, and he's someone we really liked all throughout the spring."