The knowns about the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff for next week’s Opening Day game against the Boston Red Sox are, for now, the following:
- Andrew Abbott is the scheduled starter for Opening Day, and he’ll be backed by Nick Lodolo and Brady Singer
- With Hunter Greene on the shelf following elbow surgery, each of Chase Burns, Rhett Lowder, and Brandon Williamson have made the Opening Day roster – that’s six starters who’ll work through five roles
- Only seven true bullpen roles remain open, and lefty Caleb Ferguson will miss the start of the season with his own injury issues
Based on contracts and easy assumptions, each of Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft, Pierce Johnson, and Brock Burke are locks to form the bulk of the bullpen on Opening Day, and we learned yesterday that Connor Phillips has earned a spot on it, too. That leaves just one open spot in the bullpen, and MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed on Tuesday that both
Kyle Nicolas and Hagen Danner are now out of the running for it.
Sam Moll, who is out of options, is likely the leader in the clubhouse for the final spot, as he’s a perfect situational lefty that will help ease the pain of losing Ferguson. Williamson and Burke are the other two lefties already on the staff with yet-to-be-defined roles, but Williamson will get treated more like a starter and Burke’s lack of platoon splits means he’ll be used more like a traditional reliever (and face plenty of righties). Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey are still in the hunt, in theory, but their ownership of options means they’ll likely begin at AAA and be the first wave of support should something go awry.
That’s more or less the story with Hagen Danner, who pitched brilliantly this spring. He’s not on the roster and out of options should the Reds ever choose to add him, so the risk of losing him on waivers is heightened. He’s going to get his chance this year at some point unless the wheels fall off, but the Reds are going to simply be much more strategic about when they begin the administrative tightrope of promoting him.
Nicolas, on the other hand, is simply behind schedule. The early March deal that brought him in from the Pirates organization came when he was already at World Baseball Classic duties with Team Italy, and he simply didn’t get enough game action while at the WBC to be 100% ready to begin a big league season next week. Cincinnati clearly has high hopes for him after dealing Tyler Callihan to acquire him, but they’ll use an option on him and let him build up both in Arizona and potentially AAA Louisville before he joins the mix.
What’s clear here is that the Reds certainly expect that they’ll need a ton more than 13 pitchers this season – last year, 28 different pitchers threw in games for the Reds. These moves are the best combination of getting the best possible group for Opening Day while also baking in the most depth to get them through 162 regular season games (and beyond, hopefully). You can never have too much pitching depth, and that’s what helped fuel these moves today.
