Ryan Madson is not going to pitch for the Reds. At least, not this year. His elbow is gone and he’ll be having surgery.
This stinks. There’s no doubt this stinks, but of the major players on the Reds, this might be the least painful injury. Relief pitchers are, in general, overrated in how much they contribute to a team. Still, Madson was a very good pitcher and it’s going to hurt to lose him for the season.
Encouragingly (or not, depending on your read) Walt Jocketty only gave a “maybe” to moving Aroldis Chapman to the pen in the wake of this. Walt still seems reasonably set on Chapman starting. That’s good.