Reds fans received some disappointing news regarding the status of center fielder TJ Friedl yesterday, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer relayed yesterday that the 28-year-old will need another 7-10 days of light activities before beginning to ramp up his rehab of a fractured wrist suffered during Spring Training last month.
No timetable for Friedl’s return to action was announced at the time of his injury, though Wittenmyer indicates that Friedl was hoping to have been cleared for more activity at this point in the recovery process. Friedl is joined on the injured list by infielder Matt McLain, who is expected to miss much of the 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery in late March. Despite the lack of a clear timeline for Friedl’s return to action, it appears the club is hopeful he’ll be able to return sooner rather than later, as he has not yet been placed on the 60-day IL alongside McLain.
The losses of Friedl and McLain to open the season, along with Noelvi Marte’s absence due to an 80-game suspension following a positive PED test, have tested Cincinnati’s once-impressive positional depth early in the 2024 campaign. Those losses have left the Reds with a somewhat middling offense so far this season, as their 102 wRC+ entering play today ranked middle-of-the-pack in both the majors (14th) and the NL (7th). While youngsters like Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer have gotten off to phenomenal starts this season, other key hitters such as Jeimer Candelario and Christian Encarnacion-Strand have struggled badly to this point in the young 2024 season.
That uneven offense has thrust the club’s rotation mix into the spotlight. The club’s 4.11 starting ERA through their first 13 games this season is also middle of the pack, but the rotation corps received a major reinforcement today when the club announced that southpaw Nick Lodolo had been activated from the injured list to start this afternoon’s game against the White Sox. Once a consensus top-40 prospect in the sport, the 26-year-old Lodolo delivered an excellent rookie season in 2022 but was limited to just 34 1/3 innings of 6.29 ERA baseball last year amid injury issues.
Fortunately for the Reds, it appears the left-hander is once again healthy as he dominated the White Sox to the tune of 5 2/3 scoreless innings where he allowed just one hit and one walk while racking up ten strikeouts. If Lodolo can continue to provide quality production for Cincinnati going forward, he’d join Frankie Montas and Andrew Abbott at the front of the club’s starting rotation. Right-handers Hunter Greene, Graham Ashcraft, and Nick Martinez are also in the club’s rotation mix for the time being, though it’s possible that one of that group could be pushed to the bullpen in the near future by Lodolo’s return. Martinez appears to be the most likely candidate for such a role, given his lengthy track record as a reliever and difficult start to the 2024 campaign.
That group of six appear to be unlikely to get further reinforcements in the near future, as club manager David Bell told reporters (including Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer) earlier this week that left-hander Brandon Williamson’s target date for return isn’t until late next month. Williamson is currently nursing a shoulder strain but figures to be a quality depth option for the Cincinnati rotation once healthy after he pitched to a solid 4.46 ERA (102 ERA+) in 23 starts with the club last year.
Per Goldsmith, Bell indicated that the same late May timeline Williamson is on is also the expected track for lefty relief arm Alex Young. The 30-year-old hurler has been solid in middle relief the past two seasons, pitching to a 3.36 ERA with a 4.29 FIP in 88 appearances with the Reds, Giants, and Guardians the past two seasons. Young is joined on the shelf by fellow southpaw Sam Moll, though it appears the latter lefty is much closer to a return as the Reds announced this afternoon that he’s headed to Triple-A for a rehab assignment. Acquired from the A’s in exchange for right-hander Joe Boyle at the trade deadline last year, Moll was phenomenal with the Reds down the stretch as he pitched to a 0.73 ERA in 25 appearances. While Moll and Young are on the shelf, Cincinnati has relied on Brent Suter and Justin Wilson as their primary left-handed relief options.
Lodolo looked good. Hopefully he can give them some consistent performances and length.
Lodolo looked great today, but his career high in Innings Pitched is 103 and that was 2022.
It was actually 116 if you include his minor league innings in 2022. He’s also only in his 4th full professional season since being drafted so plenty of time to build up the innings totals. Sure, he’s not getting 180 innings this year but 140 is probably within reach.
The WSox offense is poised to be historically bad, but hopefully arms like that get a confidence boost taking advantage. We are talking a below 50 win club. All opposing teams should not get lured into thinking they are hot when grabbing those easy wins…helps in the end though for WC standings.
The Reds really needed that. Hopefully, he can stay healthy. I have been around baseball a long time ( I am age 75).. I have never seen the amount of injuries on all teams but especially the Reds. I think they are doing something wrong these days. The weight training allows them the throw harder and be stronger(more power), but are more injuries the tradeoff? Is the throwing technique of standing upright and throwing downhill versus the drop and drive technique shifting most of the stress to your legs a culprit? Also, kids starting at an early age and playing year round is another likely cause. The human body is like an automobile. You can only put some many miles of wear and tear on it and if those miles are hard miles (like throwing a baseball) then you can expect premature failure. This high rate of injuries weren’t as prevalent in the old days among baseball players..
I agree Alan. Something is going on and you have as good of a theory as I’ve heard.
Alan, I have said the pitch counts and love of the radar gun is the worse things ever to happen to pitchers and stand by that. But you brought up some interesting points too with travel leagues being common and how pitching technique has changed.
I think the excessive stress is happening to kids at a very early age these days. Starting them so young also contributes to burnout by the time they reach high school or even earlier. I have seen that over and over. The human body has to get sufficient rest to remain both functional and healthy. I agree on pitch counts. They didn’t have them in the old days and things were different. I think the excessive weight training allows them to bulk up and also throw harder as well as hit the ball harder and further, but is the injury tradeoff worth it? Bulking up tends to lead to players blowing something out more often. That applies to football as well. You would think MLB would get smarter and not give mega contracts to players without an injury clause. It should be like any other business. If you don’t/can’t perform, you don’t get paid…You don’t pay a mechanic if they can’t fix your car etc.
Friedl is definitely missed in the lineup.
No doubt he is missed, but Steer, Fraley, and Fairchild have hit well so far and the Reds outfielders have been flashing a lot of leather in Chicago. Reds are still competitive without Friedl, McClain, & Marte, at least so far.
I agree, so far so good, especially from Fairchild. But we saw with India and Friedl at the top of the lineup last season was how a lot of rallys were started on offense, even if it was Friedl dropping a bunt to get the party started.
just think if we had Friedl, Marte and McClain in the lineup and that is not even considering the injured pitchers.
So what’s new? The Reds ALWAYS minimize injuries and recovery time tables. If the Reds FO says a player is going to be out 6 weeks, you can pretty much bet it’s going to be 3 months.
They still have McLain coming back from shoulder surgery by August, which is laughable.
Yes the Reds should adopt a much more pessimistic approach to the recovery of their players. Just like your doctor should always inform you that you’re gonna die eventually anyway.Optimism is cheap and sometimes effective. I do not see the downside to erring on the positive side of player recovery.. The benefit of the doubt.
I suppose if you don’t value credibility, it’s no problem at all.
It will be great to get Friedl back, but the biggest issue right now is CES and Candelario. I still think they will come around. CES doesn’t draw enough walks and strikes out way too much. He knocks the crap out of the ball though. Candelario has been pretty good on defense, at least.
I have said that Candelario will turn out to be Moose 2.0 as far as money for nothing.
Speaking of that, Espinal is turning out to be Matt Reynolds 2.0, a guy they keep playing for some reason, even though he can’t hit very well.
Some things you just see coming.
I agree on Candelario. Even with all the injuries, we still don’t need him (especially at 15 million a year). Move Steer to 3B until Marte returns. Another option then is Marte at SS and De La Cruz at 3B or OF We still have options without Candelario. The money should have been spent on a solid starter.
I’m available to sign. Send me to the minors and build up my arm strength some, I’m already throwing a 43 mph fastball and my curveball isn’t curving, but a few minor league starts and I’ll be as good as ever.
as long as you can locate that blazin’ fastball…
H calls it the Terminator
Horrible division is the NL Central.. No good teams at all.
All 5 teams current records would suggest otherwise.
That guy must live on one of the coasts to say that.
It was said in jest directed at a regular commenter here who’s adamant the NLC is ‘horrible’ despite the mounting evidence that it’s likely the most solid division in MLB.
I thought you were that guy lol. My bad.
I liked the Moll trade since they were contending. It was still disappointing they had to give up a pitcher who while wild looked at worst to be a good long reliever. The Reds history of developing starting pitchers that are actually above average since 1977 is limited to Mario Soto. Charlie Liebrandt who had to leave Cincinnati to become better. Tom Browning. Johnny Cueto. Mike Leake. Just not a good history.
Even their strength which was developing relievers has been lacking for a while as well.
The minors have looked better in the last few years.
Homer Bailey looked good at times before he was hurt, but yeah, not much to brag about over the past 50 years.
You would think they would just get lucky with a player or two.
They also have a history of extending the wrong pitcher, i.e. Homer Bailey and Hunter Greene. It’s time to admit Hunter will not be more than he is, a thrower instead of a pitcher who is lucky to get out of five innings unscathed. Of the current pitchers, none really has the track record that says extend me the way Spencer Steer has. That guy, they need to lock up NOW.
The best pitchers of each era, Johnny Cueto and Luis Castillo, they let walk.
Reds just have a bad history of developing pitching the past couple of decades as a whole.
The Hunter Greene extension (6year/$53MM with a team option @$21MM for 2029) was a solid investment whether Greene becomes a TOR SP or only reaches his floor as a high-leverages reliever. Comparing Reds pitching development under say “leather pants” or Joketty to what Reds are accomplishing under Krall and DJ is laughable. Greene, Lodolo, Abbott, Ashcraft, Williamson, Petty, A. Diaz, Phillips, Aguiar, Lowder, F. Cruz, & Santillan have all come through the Reds system to some extent and have viable ML careers in front of them. Reds have plenty of time to analyze which (if any) of that group should next be offerred an extension. I like Abbott’s chances of getting a Greene type deal.
Personally I think Ashcraft and Abbott will be the best of the current bunch. Phillips and Williamson have shown signs of knowing how to pitch as well, but we will have to see once they have a track record.
I hope Lodolo can stay healthy. If so, I think he will definitely be the ace of the staff.
Johnny Cueto was signed to an extension nearly identical to Hunter Greene.
Yes just like the resident Reds expert on everything you knew the Will Benson trade was bad and would never work. You know after 13 games that Candelario is going to be Moose part deuce.
And your confused? Why this new guy is playing so much when you know he’s only on this team because Matt is out along with the Marte suspension. He wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those two being out. That’s why he’s playing.
They need someone who can play multiple positions right before the season started and you expected them to be able to pick up some great hitting MI out of where? Any chance you get to critique Krall without much there you will do.
15 games in and we’re on pace to win 90+ games despite the suspension and the rash of injuries. Rotation overall is making strides and not exhausting the pen. Offense looks good despite a couple guys struggling at times. Should be a fun summer.