With Yankees' Chamberlain out, new options emerge

Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain is out indefinitely with a strained left oblique and will not be pitching anytime soon. 

"Anytime you hear a strain, you say that's bad news," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "That's not what you want to hear.

With Opening Day just two weeks away, Chamberlain will need a speedy recovery if he wants to make the Opening Day roster. Fortunately, the Yankees have Rafael Soriano and Dave Robertson to use in the later innings and both have proven to be reliable arms.

An interesting possibility would be to use former ace Mark Prior out of the bullpen. Prior has only pitched in 4 2/3 innings this spring, but has surrendered just one run and struck out six. His command has been a little erratic, but these next two weeks will show whether or not he is ready to return to the big leagues. 

Other arms looking good for the Yankees include Luis Ayala, who is also recovering from an injury, and big lefty Andrew Sisco, who hasn't been in the big leagues since 2007.

The Yankees are going to have to pull their pitching staff together, but they do have several options and could turn a potentially dangerous bullpen.