The Reds announced that they have placed right-hander Graham Ashcraft on the 15-day injured list due to a left calf contusion. In a corresponding move, they recalled right-hander Ricky Karcher, who will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Ashcraft was struck by a comebacker in his start yesterday and initially stayed in the game but it seems there are some lingering effects from that. The righty made his major league debut with a 4.89 ERA last year, getting ground balls at a strong 54.5% rate. However, this year’s results haven’t been as good, with a 47.6% grounder rate and 6.78 ERA. He’ll take at least a couple of weeks to heal up his calf and try to get in better form when he returns.
The Reds may not need to replace Ashcraft as they had been recently using a six-man rotation. Even without Ashcraft, they will still have Hunter Greene, Luke Weaver, Ben Lively, Brandon Williamson and Andrew Abbott. If they are fine with using a five-man set going forward, they could roll with that group.
As for Karcher, as mentioned up top, he has yet to make his major league debut. Now 25 years old, he was a 13th-round draft selection in 2017. He initially was working primarily as a starter but has pitched exclusively in relief since the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. He had a solid season last year, moving from Double-A to Triple-A. He tossed 56 2/3 innings between those two levels with a 3.65 ERA. His 15.9% walk rate was incredibly high, but he paired that with an excellent 35.1% strikeout rate.
At the end of that year, he was given a spot on the club’s 40-man roster to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America then listed him as the club’s 23rd best prospect coming into this year. Here in 2023, he’s been lit up with a 9.27 ERA, though there are reasons to believe that figure might be somewhat misleading. His .362 batting average on balls in play and 52.5% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side, leading to a 6.64 FIP. That’s still not great and is likely due to a frightening 27% walk rate, though he’s been better lately. Since May 3, he has a 2.40 ERA and 18.8% walk rate.
I knew something was wrong with Ashcraft. even before what happened last night to his calf.
This Karcher guy was knocked around like a pinata, and they brought him to the bigs?
Nah bruh, he was terrible well before he took a ball off his leg. His last quality start was May 2nd where he pitched 6 innings and allowed one run . In 7 starts since he has been shelled, including giving up 32 earned runs in only 15.2 innings.
9.27 ERA. in 22 IP. 23 hits, 29 runs, a whopping 34 walks and 31 SO in those 22 IP. The Reds must be hard up for pitching in Louisville .
He’s not really been that bad. 1) he’s been extremely unlucky on BABIP and 2) his ERA a month ago was over 20. He’s been lights out for a while now, but got shelled at the start of the season.
He was lights out until May 2nd, but from then until this month he as been downright awful.
I didn’t know that you could get a calf contusion from getting shelled frequently.
But you do if you have a batted ball whacked off it.
If you actually saw the game, you would know what happened.
I did not. Thank you.
They replaced him with a guy with a 9 ERA in AAA? Good luck kid.
Which means he’s going to throw 3 innings of no-hit ball. Baseball is weird like that. Get well soon Ashcraft!
No, Karcher’s just taking a low leverage spot in the BP. Also, that 9 ERA is the result of some early season stuff. It was over 21 a month ago and he’s pitched very well since then.
Just looking at his game logs, Karcher was lights out in May and in his two outings this month, not so good. But there’s some optimism in bringing him up.
“Lights out” is a little optimistic. He averaged 9 walks per 9 innings in May.
Yeah true. I did see all the walks he had. But hey, at least he got outs.
34 walks in 22 innings. come back Derek law
I would give the first 100 dollars for a GoFundYourself page to get Trevor Bauer back in Cincinnati. He is the answer for a playoff run and everyone needs to get over themselves because they are offended that two adults played cops and robbers. Go get him now!
Wildest pitcher I have ever seen outside of a movie. And yet his career ERA is still 0.00 after last night.