PHOENIX -- The Brewers made another flurry of camp cuts on Monday that essentially set the team's 12-man pitching staff for Opening Day and further clarified the three bench spots still up for grabs.

Milwaukee optioned infielder/outfielder Hernan Iribarren to Triple-A Nashville, returned super-utility man Vinny Rottino to Minor League camp and informed non-roster pitchers Lindsay Gulin and Wes Littleton and catcher Carlos Corporan that they will not make the Opening Day roster.

Gulin, Littleton and Corporan will travel with the team to Los Angeles for a pair of weekend exhibitions with the Dodgers and will also take part in team workouts in San Francisco next week before reporting to Nashville to start the season.

The moves had a number of implications:

• The subtraction of Gulin and Littleton, combined with the news Monday that closer Trevor Hoffman had been placed on the disabled list with a ribcage injury, left the Brewers with 12 pitchers in camp. That meant roster spots for both Mark DiFelice and Jorge Julio, right-handed relievers who were competing for the final bullpen job.

With no additions from outside the organization over the next week, the staff will consist of starters Jeff Suppan, Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra, Braden Looper and Dave Bush (in that order to start the year) plus relievers Todd Coffey, DiFelice, Julio, Seth McClung, David Riske, Mitch Stetter and Carlos Villanueva.

• Three bench roles are still up for grabs. The Brewers will choose two outfielders from Chris Duffy, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Brad Nelson, and one infielder from Mike Lamb and Casey McGehee. The Lamb/McGehee battle has been a good one, but both will make the cut if Craig Counsell, who was back in the lineup Monday after playing the previous two days in Minor League camp, has a setback and needs surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his right knee.

• The decision to send Corporan to Nashville has major implications for Rottino, a Wisconsin native who was removed from the 40-man roster at the start of camp. Last year, the Brewers installed Rottino as the starting catcher at Nashville with hopes of eventually advancing him to the big leagues as a backup. That experiment has been abandoned, according to assistant general manager Gord Ash.

Rottino will catch "on occasion" this season, Ash said. Angel Salome, sidelined by a back injury through much of Spring Training, is to resume catching duties in the coming days and is projected to start at Nashville. Corporan will be his backup.

"[Rottino] will be more of a true utility player," Ash said.

• Gulin will join a starting rotation at Nashville also expected to include Chase Wright, Nick Green, Sam Narron and Tim Dillard. Left-hander Chris Narveson will be assigned to the bullpen, and the organization will make decisions on two other Triple-A pitchers -- Richie Gardner and Matt Ginter -- on Tuesday. Both of those pitchers have bullpen experience, Ash said.

"Lindsay Gulin had a tremendous spring," Brewers manager Ken Macha said of the veteran lefty, who lowered his ERA to 2.77 on Monday. "He showed a lot of people a lot of stuff, so he should be proud of his spring."

Gulin worked the ninth inning of Monday's game and surrendered four runs, three of them on outfielder Mike Wilson's second homer. But all four runs were unearned because of an error by right fielder Corey Hart.