He played well in long relief, he’s got the stamina, why not?

Then again, look at that list. We really already have enough starters. You’ve got JJ up front, and I’ll say Nolasco is guaranteed a spot too after his late-season play. Volstad slumped late last season, but maybe it was just fatigue. He’s probably in for now, at least. West is a solid starter if he does something about his control, and a back-of-the-rotation guy even if he doesn’t.

After that… Sanchez has been injured/ineffective for a while, but then he posted a 2.68 ERA in 9 post-All Star games last year. If he stays healthy and builds on that, he’s in. Miller is of course overhauling his whole delivery — I wouldn’t be shocked to see him open the year in the minors. And Vandenhurk actually wasn’t bad last year, but I don’t see him as more than a spot starter or a mop-up guy. He’s just so… vandenhurky.

Either way, I guess the team has Vandenhurk pegged as the long reliever who moves up to the rotation if needed, rather than Badenhop. So… maybe they’re thinking Badenhop has a job on the team anyway, and isn’t in line to start immediately, so they don’t need to look at him in the pre-season, whereas they DO need to take a good hard look at Penn to figure out whether there’s anything there to work with?

Of course, they might just think he doesn’t have the stamina to be a real starter. (Though… does Vandenurk? He’s pretty marginal there as well.)