The writing was on the wall for the Cincinnati Reds yesterday when star pitcher Chase Burns was scratched late from his scheduled start against the Kansas City Royals due to illness. When the once-dependable portion of the team’s tattered rotation was turned into a spot bullpen start, it was a clear indication that some more churn and burn would come to the team’s ever-evolving roster.
That came Tuesday afternoon in the promotion of the recently acquired Zach McCambey, the pitcher the Reds picked
up from Miami in the deal that sent the recently DFA’d Rece Hinds the other way. He’ll join Luis Mey on the active roster tonight as the Reds cycle fresh arms through their depleted bullpen ranks.
The other positive news tucked into the above announcement by the Reds is that Rhett Lowder, whose shoulder was ‘clicking’ in an early May outing before he was shut down for a few weeks, is heading to AAA Louisville to begin a rehab assignment. If all goes well there, he’ll be back with the Reds at some point in the next three weeks.
Of course, to make way for all of this, two players needed to be culled from the roster. Those two were Lyon Richardson and Brandon Liebrandt, both of whom being designated for assignment to clear spaces on the 40-man roster. Both have previously been DFA’d by the Reds and remained within the organization, and given how much the Reds need any and all arms available I’d wager they still hope the two clear waivers and do so once again. Richardson was shelled for a grand slam in his opening IP, and maybe that’ll do enough bad PR to keep someone from claiming him even though he has, at times, looked competent at the big league level.
We shall see. For now, welcome to the show, Zach, and here’s hoping you can manage to throw strikes in the majors.
