The Reds received some difficult news on the pitching front this week. Rookie right-hander Rhett Lowder, who has been out all season with a forearm strain, suffered a new injury during a rehab start at Triple-A Louisville on Thursday.
Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com) that Lowder sustained a “fairly significant” strain of his left oblique. Francona noted that the team still didn’t know the specific timeline as they awaited the results of imaging from Friday morning. In any case, it’s certainly going to delay his return to the big league rotation.
Lowder, 23, was the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft. The Wake Forest product flew through the minors and received his first MLB call last August. That was motivated partially by injury, but he maintained his rotation spot through the end of the season and took the ball six times. Lowder managed a 1.17 ERA across his first 30 2/3 big league innings. His MLB strikeout and walk numbers weren’t nearly as impressive, but he’d fanned more than a quarter of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate over 22 minor league starts.
That positioned him to compete for a spot at the back of the rotation in Spring Training. Lowder reported some elbow soreness during his offseason throwing program, leading the Reds to slow-play him and have him begin the season on the injured list. They sent him to their Arizona complex on May 6. He made one High-A appearance five days later and jumped up to Louisville on May 16. Lowder only recorded one out and allowed four runs during his first start with the Bats. He suffered the injury yesterday on his first pitch of the second inning after tossing a scoreless frame in the first.
The Reds figure to pull Lowder off his current rehab assignment. They’ll probably move him to the 60-day injured list when they next need to create a 40-man roster spot. That would backdate to Opening Day and would not impact his eligibility for reinstatement beyond this weekend.
Please don’t use all capital letters just to talk Lowder.
Terry Francona has no problem with Pete Rose being a pedo and no problem with Mickey Callaway being a deviant and covering for him. Very sad.
As a Yankees fan what’s your opinion on Mariano?
If it’s true it would be in the same boat as Terry. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first time I’d have to criticize my own franchise. I was a Saints fan, and the coverup Gale Bensen orchestrated with the local churches was absolutely disgusting and I’ll never watch another second of a saints game again. That lady, and more importantly the priests should all be in prison.
Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle were drunken perverts. What the f@@@ do either comment have to do with this story?
Let he we without sin cast the first stone. You ain’t it.
I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
I shot a man in a Torino.
Bringing light to all the creeps in the sports world. Especially the ones who get the “good guy” title. Francona’s own son came out and said that Terry covers up for Callaway.
If there’s a final judgment to be made on character, let that be made by the ultimate judge. The big boss doesn’t need any help with that.
@Yanks4life22,
I don’t disagree with you in principle, but it’s possible for both Terry Francona being a good guy and Mickey Callaway being a p¡ece of sh¡t. Humanity is a tricky thing.
I read a comment online recently by someone saying “Apparently if you’re a good enough professional athlete, nobody cares if you assault people.”
Sad that there seems to be some degree of truth to that, at least in certain cases.
The Reds could have a really good young and deep rotation by next season. Chase Burns looks like a future ace and Lowder (if he can stay healthy) looks like a good bet to be at least a very solid mid-rotation guy. Chase Petty (in the minors) and Ty Floyd have also been really good so far this year.
All true, but the Reds players (especially the pitchers) are an injury list addition waiting to happen. Couple that with the under performers (position players) and it isn’t exactly a recipe for success. Right now it is a huge question mark on the true identity of this Reds team. All the potential in the world is just that unless it comes to to fruition. .
You nailed it Alan. What looked like a promising team is pretty well gone. A lot of offense we hoped for is gone with Marte, Candelario and CES gone. McLain and Steer is really underperforming. And quite frankly, Elly hasn’t been as good as advertised.
Elly is never going to live up to his potential. Such a major disappointment. Dude has a career obp of .322 and ppl try and act like he’s one of the best in the game. He absolutely needs to stop hitting right handed as well. He has close to a .200 BA when hitting right handed, basically an auto out.
They’ll need everyone of them and more !
Get well soon Lowder
Luckily the Reds have maybe the best young rotation in baseball. Once they add Burns and Lowder to it, it may be the best.