The Reds announced a flurry of roster moves this morning, as the club placed left-hander Nick Lodolo and right-hander Casey Legumina on the 15-day injured list and optioned right-hander Levi Stoudt to Triple-A Louisville. To replace the aforementioned trio on the roster, the club recalled right-hander Kevin Herget while selecting the contracts of right-handers Alan Busenitz and Silvino Bracho. To clear 40-man roster space for Busenitz and Bracho, the club has transferred right-hander Connor Overton and left-hander Reiver Sanmartin to the 60-day IL. As noted by Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Lodolo is expected to miss at least four weeks of action.
The most significant news here is that regarding Lodolo, as the 25-year-old lefty will now miss at least a month of the 2023 campaign. A long time top prospect for the Reds, Lodolo was as good as advertised in his first taste of big league action last year, pitching to a solid 3.66 ERA (123 ERA+) and a 3.90 FIP over 103 1/3 innings of work across 19 starts. Unfortunately for the Reds, Lodolo wasn’t able to carry that success over into the 2023 campaign, as the lefty has posted an ugly 6.29 ERA and 5.82 FIP in seven starts this season. Lodolo figures to rest his ailing calf and get healthy in order to try and get his season on track when he returns from the IL this summer.
With Lodolo out of action for the time being, the Reds have just three regular starters in their rotation: Hunter Greene, Graham Ashcraft, and Luke Weaver. With no announced starter for Tuesday’s game against Colorado, the club could look to add another starter to the roster in the coming days, though with ten relievers on the roster at the moment, a bullpen game is another option the club could explore.
Joining Lodolo in exiting the active roster is a pair of rookies: Legumina, 25, heads to the IL while Stoudt, 25, heads to Triple-A. Legumina has posted a decent 4.35 ERA in 10 1/3 innings of work out of the Reds bullpen this season, while Stoudt struggled to a 10.29 ERA in seven innings over two appearances, including one start.
Replacing the trio on the roster is a group of right-handers. Herget, 32, impressed earlier this season in 10 2/3 innings of work out of the Reds bullpen, posting a 1.69 ERA in five appearances. The 32-year-old Busenitz, meanwhile, has yet to make an appearance in a Reds uniform. The righty sports a 4.58 ERA in 57 innings of work in the big leagues, all of which came as a member of the Twins across the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. Since then, he’s spent four seasons pitching in Japan, with a 2.83 ERA in 155 2/3 innings of work. He landed a minor league deal with Cincinnati in December, and has impressed against Triple-A pitching so far, with a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings.
The 30-year-old Bracho, meanwhile, is now poised to make the first appearance of his seventh season in the major leagues. The righty reliever made his debut in 2015 with the Diamondbacks, and spent most of his career with Arizona before joining the Braves in 2022. Bracho was non-tendered by the club this past offseason and signed a minor league deal with the Reds during Spring Training. Overall, Bracho has a career 4.88 ERA in 94 innings at the big league level.
It really seems like, year over year, the frequency at which pitchers get injured continues to grow, and it’s a real shame. Hopefully Lodolo’s IL stint doesnt last any longer than the expected 4 weeks.
Hope so too.
Pitch counts and radar guns. I’m telling you.
Guess letting him toss 115 pitches on April 2nd WASN’T a very good idea after all. Or whatever day and how many pitches it was. It was a stupid idea with a good young arm.
He has a calf injury, not an arm injury. And that was a month and a half ago.
Herget was just optioned yesterday and then recalled today. Can only option a player 5 times per season under the new CBA. Anyone know if there’s an in-season count of player options available somewhere?
I don’t know if there’s an easy count available other than counting their option assignments to the minors on their MLB transactions page. And sometimes those aren’t accurate.
I believe if there is an injury, they can bring a guy back and it doesn’t count as another transaction. Also I think there’s still a rule about how soon you can bring them back. 5 days sticks in my head. An injury lets them bring them back sooner.
It is 10 days for position players and 15 days for pitchers unless they are the 27th man for a doubleheader or, like you wrote, an injury replacement.
The 10/15 day rule is for how long the player needs to remain optioned, unless there’s an injury. I haven’t seen anything that explains the rules about when an option does or doesn’t count against the new 5-times-per-season limit.
Why option Herget for a dumpster dive guy anyway? You know what you have in his case and he has pitched decently.
Read that wrong on Herget. Glad he is still there.
They are still two dumpster dive guys though.
I still think the other starter should be Abbott.
One dumpster dive guy already blew the lead and cost the game. Why they would put a guy like that into a tie game, I’ll never know.
Weaver doesn’t have many decent starts, seemed a shame to waste it.
This organization is good at shooting themselves in the foot. It is a credit to the players their record is what it is this season in spite of this.
They have had a rash of pitcher injuries and a rebuild year. Doesn’t much matter who they bring up from a 2023 perspective. It should be guys that they believe deserve a shot in the bigs going forward.
And Weaver has been pitching better and better of late. Another dumpster dive that has paid off for Krall.
Surprised that MLB was never able to develop a padded baseball cap that didn’t make pitchers look like goons. Fashion over safety?