Chase Burns got the start for the Cincinnati Reds against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night in southern California, and he did not allow a hit.
Their ace. The starter. Did not allow a hit. Front-page news almost every time you see those components combined, right?
For 44 brilliant pitches, Burns tore through the Dodgers lineup once, and swooshed right by superstar Shohei Ohtani twice. That, though, was it – Cincinnati began to deploy their plan to keep him healthy for 2027 while still building
innings and endurance by starting every fifth day through the end of the season, and lefty Brandon Williamson took over to throw 86 innings beginning with the Bottom of the 4th.
This appears to be the plan. It’s not going to be easing him back to 70 pitches, then 60, then 50 and 40 and so on. Rather, he’s going to go out and face a lineup for a turn and hopefully do so as efficiently and effectively as possible, likely for at least three more turns through the rotation as there are 18 games remaining in this 2026 season.
Doing so will keep him from adding to the 15 wins he’s accrued already this year, if that’s the kind of thing you’re still into despite all the dissection of the stat over the last 35 years. It might also keep his velocity up around 99 mph, as he knows he’s not going to need to pace himself so much while letting it rip.
With 148.1 IP under his belt, another trio of 3.0 IP outings would push him to 157.1 for the year. That would be nearly a 50 IP jump over the 109.1 IP he logged across all levels during the 2025 season, a significant but not outlandish progression. Beyond that, it would – in theory – build him up to the point where going a full season with zero throttling in 2027 would be firmly on the table, something that sounds increasingly juicy with Hunter Greene sidelined and the rest of the Reds rotation options looking anything but rock-solid dependable over the course of this particular season.
It obviously reduces the Reds chances of winning more games than they lose this season, something that’s already going to be nearly impossible for all the reasons mentioned in the above sentence. They’re also 69-75 with a brutal schedule remaining, but maybe this will help them sink down the depth chart of win leaders across the league and, therefore, give them a better chance at a top draft pick next summer.
Most importantly, it’s them being proactive about keeping their resident ace in the best position to succeed next year when the Reds, presumably, will try to make more of an effort to win games than they have so far in 2026.
