Reds starter Brandon Williamson will begin the season on the 15-day injured list, manager David Bell informed the Cincinnati beat on Tuesday (relayed by Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer). The left-hander departed his Spring Training start over the weekend with shoulder soreness.
There’s no indication it’s expected to be a long-term issue, but the team didn’t provide a timeline for his return. Williamson held a spot in the Reds rotation for much of last season. He started 23 games and worked 117 innings as a rookie. After being hit hard through his first eight starts, Williamson settled in as a decent back-of-the-rotation contributor. He finished his debut campaign with a 4.46 ERA, a respectable figure for a rookie pitching in one of the league’s most hitter-friendly home environments.
That came with middling peripherals, but the TCU product still had a shot of securing a season-opening rotation spot if he were healthy. With Williamson on the shelf, Bell said that fellow lefty Andrew Abbott will get a starting job. The Reds had previously been noncommittal on that, even though Abbott had a strong rookie campaign. Over 21 starts, he worked to a 3.87 ERA while punching out 26.1% of opposing hitters. The overall numbers were impressive, but Abbott’s production fell off dramatically down the stretch. He carried a 2.35 ERA into August before allowing more than six earned runs per nine in each of the final two months.
Abbott rounds out a season-opening rotation that’ll be fronted by offseason pickup Frankie Montas. The Reds announced that the hard-throwing righty will get the nod on Opening Day for his team debut. He’ll be followed in some order by Hunter Greene, Graham Ashcraft, fellow free agent signee Nick Martinez, and Abbott. Martinez has plenty of experience as both a starter and reliever. He’ll take at least one turn through the rotation but would be an option to move back to the bullpen once Nick Lodolo is ready for his season debut. The Reds have targeted the second week of April for the left-hander, who lost most of the 2023 season to a stress fracture in his left tibia.
Cincinnati was hit with bigger injury news over the weekend, as center fielder TJ Friedl was diagnosed with a fracture in his right wrist. He’ll be out for quite some time. At this stage of the offseason, there aren’t any MLB-caliber center fielders still available in free agency. Mark Sheldon of MLB.com writes that the Reds seem likely to turn to the combination of Will Benson and Stuart Fairchild to cover center field if they can’t find help outside the organization.
As a left-handed hitter, Benson would be in position for the stronger side of a possible platoon arrangement. The Reds kept him away from southpaws last season, limiting him to 44 plate appearances. Benson was excellent when put in favorable platoon situations. He hit .297/.389/.549 in a little under 300 trips versus righty pitching. That kind of production was always going to warrant a lot of play in the Cincinnati outfield. The bigger question is whether he’s capable of handling an up-the-middle position. Benson only has 88 major league innings in center field. Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved have each graded him as a roughly neutral defender in the corners.
Fairchild appeared in 97 games a year ago, hitting .228/.321/.388. He’s out of minor league options and was already set to break camp, but the Friedl injury pushes him into a more important fourth outfield role. The 28-year-old has posted roughly average offensive numbers against pitchers of either handedness in his major league career. He owns a more impressive .275/.371/.507 slash line over parts of three Triple-A campaigns.
The Reds have the depth to withstand this; a like the upside/ceiling of that rotation quite a bit. More and more seeing the Reds as the leading team in that division.
Exciting lineup, but too much hoping on pretty much every member of rotation. Cubs probably have an edge heading in b/c they are good/not great in pretty much every area.
Speaking as a fair Reds fan, Chicago worries me most, can’t count out St Louis ever, and I like what Pittsburgh is doing over there.
I wish we would have kept this kid, ISOB. He is extremely impressive
Reality just has to come close to the upside. It hasn’t yet
None of these guys threw more than 140 innings last year. Most barely broke 100. There are a bunch of guys here who throw 4-5 innings a start so the bullpen can look forward to being overtaxed again. They got some better guys down there but they’ll be counted on for too many innings.
They are already feeling the pain of the front office’s inaction on improving the starting pitching and a backup or platoon CF and the season hasn’t even started yet. That’s a shame because you have to love the everyday lineup still.
I’m sure those who worship at the altar will say that’s brilliant like an old Guinness commercial.
They signed two starting pitchers in Montas and Martinez. What are you talking about? They have a backup centerfielder – Fraley and Benson and Fairchild. Why would you platoon with Friedl?
The timing of Friedl’s injury is unfortunate. Were that injury to not have happened until June or July, his replacement would be more apparent from among not only the 3 you mentioned- but Bubba, Blake and Jacob as well. As for SP, by midseason Phillips, Richardson, Spiers may be ready to start their ML careers with Petty, Aguiar, and possibly Lowder right behind.
All three of those have proved in the past they cannot handle CF. Fraley can barely stay on the field.
Montas barely pitched last year. Martinez has always been a swingman.
You might want to know these things instead of blindly accepting what propaganda the front office is peddling.
Man, did Krall take your girl?
@This, Montas (OD starter) and Martinez don’t improve the starting pitching over the Weaver, Lively, Cessa, and Richardson group from last year? You are too blind in your opinion of the FO to see reality.
The Reds have a bunch of young arms that have been injured most of the time. I said before they need a lot to go right with them for the Reds to take a big leap forward. You never know know what you’re going to get out of Montas from year to year and Martinez doesn’t really scare anybody. The young arms are the future and Bell hasn’t shown any real ability to manage a pitching staff. Probably looking at quite a few slug fests this year. Should be interesting. Williamson going down already isn’t a good sign.
I admit I’m on old guy from the “rub some dirt on it and get back out there” generation. I don’t have statistics on the matter but it sure seems more players are coming down with more injuries than in the past. Poor conditioning? Over abundance of caution by management? Game has changed so we fans have to accept or move on.
I’m also from the ” Rub some dirt on it generation” So I’m with you. However what the Rub it generation had that the current generation will never have is that they took speed and pain pills like Tic Tacs. It’s why when people get so apoplectic about Steroids they never bring that up. If you’ve read Boutons book you know that those pills were just laying around on tables in the training room with zero idea of what the long term effects would be or regulation as to their use. Nobody is going to admit they did it now but if you’re against Steroids you should also void those stats also. Baseball Players from every generation had their own personal ways to enhance their performances it’s just a question of what. Medical Science has advanced so that most of the problems that weren’t able to be fixed now are, Especially with Pitchers. Now it’s just a question of how the game has evolved into the starters going 6 innings throwing as hard as they can and then going to the bullpen. For every cause there’s going to be an effect. This is just another evolution.