Still reeling from losing Graham Ashcraft to the 60-day IL with a UCL strain in his right elbow, the Cincinnati Reds lost another veteran arm from their bullpen on Saturday afternoon.
Pierce Johnson was placed on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his right elbow, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed, and the ripple effect necessitated deeper roster shuffling to help backfill for his absence. Lyon Richardson – who had been designated for assignment by the Reds during the offseason – had his contract
selected and was promoted, and to free up a spot on the 40-man roster fellow reliever Kyle Nicolas was DFA’d himself.
It’s yet another disaster scenario for a unit that was already down closer Emilio Pagan. No relief corps in the game today has walked more batters per 9 innings than Cincinnati’s, and that was with their top arms available; now they’re leaning on a unit that up until a few weeks ago was effectively the back-end of their AAA Louisville unit.
There’s no immediate indication of the severity of Johnson’s elbow problem, but it’s certainly not a great sign when the club placed him on the IL with the problem given how little experience there is down there without him.
The good news, if there is any, is that in Richardson the Reds are at least getting a guy who, for spurts, has held his own as a big league reliever. His overall body of work is rather ugly, but that’s not 100% indicative of his effectiveness on many instances. His AAA numbers so far this year aren’t brilliant – he’s sporting a 4.75 ERA – but he has fanned 34 against 14 walks in 30.1 IP and does have skewed numbers after being shelled for 6 ER in just 1.1 IP in his second to last outing. He’s also been throwing multiple innings for the Bats more often than not, of late, and some of his worst outings came in that role – it’s hard to imagine him being asked to go more than a single IP at the big league level, however.
It’s just about time for the Reds to go find some relief help, since they’re burning through their current stash in a hurry.
