The Cincinnati Reds have announced that left-handed starting pitcher Alex Wood will be starting on Sunday afternoon against the Colorado Rockies. The original plan stated was that he would get one more rehab appearance before making his 2019 debut. Things changed, apparently, and he’ll debut this weekend at home for the Reds.
The big pitching acquisition in the trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason has battled a back issue since February. After attempting to start throwing several times and being shut down, he was able to begin actual rehab games the first week of the month. He made three starts with the Louisville Bats. While in Triple-A he threw 5.1 innings in that span – with his last start there lasting just 2.0 innings after rain came on and delayed the game for nearly three hours. The next time he was scheduled to pitch was an off day for Louisville, so he headed to join Double-A Chattanooga in Birmingham where he allowed one run over 6.0 innings with four strikeouts on the 22nd. He threw 85 pitches in that start and got stretched out enough that the Reds are comfortable sending him out there on Sunday.
The Reds rotation, as announced, will be as follows:
- Luis Castillo – Friday
- Anthony DeSclafani – Saturday
- Alex Wood – Sunday
- Sonny Gray – Monday
- Tanner Roark – Tuesday
- Luis Castillo – Wednesday
That would seem to, at least for the time being, have Lucas Sims out of the rotation. That’s not unsurprising given that it felt like he was just making a spot start. But it does leave open the question of what will happen when Tyler Mahle is ready to return from the injured list (hamstring).
Kyle Farmer to begin rehab in Dayton tonight
Cincinnati Reds infielder/catcher Kyle Farmer is in Dayton right now and set to catch tonight for the Low-A Dragons. He has passed all of the concussion protocol required by Major League Baseball to begin playing again. He will be paired up in a battery with 2019 1st round pick Nick Lodolo, who is also making his first career appearance with the Dragons tonight. Farmer will be batting 3rd in the lineup. He is not expected to catch the entire
Here’s to hoping Wood comes out throwing BB’s and Tyler Mahle can find his way back to pitching great in the meantime.
I’ve said many times that I think an incentive heavy extension of two or theee years makes a ton of sense for Alex Wood. First things first though, here’s hoping he can pitch healthy and stay healthy.
And this is good news on Farmer to go with the recent good news on Barnhart as well. That leaves just Senzel, Casali and Garrett with health questions. I know Garrett is back but he simply doesn’t look the same unhittable Amir that we were spoiled by for the first half of the year.
Yes, I think that is exactly what will happen. The TOP MEN with the Reds have deemed it to be so.
If anyone, Roark is the only guy who really needs to be traded, in my opinion. I think it’s very likely the Reds get a comp pick from Puig, and pretty likely to get one from Wood, if they aren’t moved by the end of the season and aren’t extended. Eno Sarris had a great article over at The Athletic discussing the recent market plummet for rentals. If you go back and look at the hauls for JD Ramirez and Manny Machado over the last two years, and the best thing in either of those deals was one borderline top 100 prospect. They are both significantly better than Puig, who was actually the example used to contrast the previous trades. I understand the value of lottery ticket prospects, and we’ve gotten a couple good ones lately, but teams aren’t paying what they used to, and there is a reasonable argument that the QO comp pick might be more valuable than what they could get for Wood or Puig now. We’ll see, but I feel there is less of a need to move expiring contracts this year than in the previous era.
There literally is no one making any trades with only one week until the trade deadline… Wouldn’t Puig at least be worth a Qualifying Offer? It is not a guarantee the Reds would get anything for him, but teams are not coughing up prospects for rentals. Maybe we will see a flurry of activity over the next week, but trading any players who will be Free Agents after the season is going to be challenging for all teams. I do not think the Trade Deadline will be defining this front office. What will define this FO IMO is the changes they have made throughout the organization with a shift to analytics, scouting, coaching and focus on the development of players. This process needs to be the plan and will probably take some time beyond this upcoming trade deadline to validate the success or failure. Maybe the Reds could have gotten something of value for Matt Harvey, Cozart or Scooter, but really no one wanted these guys….if the Reds could have gotten a lotto ticket in return, fans would say they made a bad deal.
Maybe the value is having the player in the organization for the contracted period they were signed for and nothing more in this new era of teams overvaluing prospects.
The mid-season trade flurry usually comes down to the last few hours of the last day.
Great points Shchi, totally agree. I also hope Wood making one start means they may be interested in flipping him before July 31st as well.