The Cincinnati Reds are activating right-handed starting pitcher Rhett Lowder from the 15-day injured list today so he can start later this afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals. To make room for him on the 26-man roster the club is optioning right-handed reliever Luis Mey to Triple-A Louisville where he will rejoin the Bats bullpen.
Mey was called up this past week, joining the Reds on June 2nd from Louisville to help provide some innings and depth to the bullpen. He only pitched in one game this time during his stay and things didn’t go well. On Friday he entered the game in the 6th inning with two runners on base and he allowed both of them to score. He would give up one hit, walk three batters, hit another batter, record just one out, and also be charged with two earned runs of his own. That’s 0.1 innings pitched and four runs scoring for St. Louis while he was on the mound. Cincinnati would wind up losing that game 10-3 after the Cardinals scored six runs in that 6th inning to put the game away.
Rhett Lowder is returning to the rotation after missing the last month with a shoulder issue. On May 7th he had to exit his start against the Chicago Cubs in the 4th inning. While he continued throwing after being placed on the 15-day injured list he didn’t go out on a rehab start until June 2nd when he joined Triple-A Louisville in Memphis to make a start against the Cardinals affiliate. In that start he threw 70 pitches with 50 strikes in his 5.0 innings. The Redbirds had six hits and scored three runs that day, but Lowder didn’t walk a batter and he had eight strikeouts. Lars Nootbaar, who is starting for St. Louis today, was also rehabbing that day and went 0-3 with a strikeout against Lowder.
He looked very rattled out there and watching Stephenson going out to talk to him. I got a sense his confidence level pitching at mlb level is gone. Hopefully he can get it figured out!!
The reds have over 150 players under contract in the major and minor leagues and don’t have a single player that can pitch at the major league level in the 7 8 or 9th innings how can that be?
Because most of those players under contract aren’t big league caliber players and among the ones that are, most aren’t big league caliber relievers. Among the even smaller group that are, several are hurt.
I’d be happy if they could throw strikes… how disheartening it is to watch walk after walk….
Interesting, Skubal will be tossing a rehab game vs the Duno led Dragons today.
Meanwhile, Greene is starting his way back but still not even has his first bullpen session…It’s obvious Greene & Skubal have absolutely different injuries
Yeah, a little different injuries and procedures but Greene is already throwing bullpens.
From Wittenmyer at the Enquirer:
“Meanwhile, ace Hunter Greene, who has bone chips removed from his elbow in March, is expected to progress in his throwing program to facing hitters early in the week after several bullpen sessions over the past two weeks.
Barring a setback, he would do that again later in the week, a progression that Francona said could mean a return from the IL during the first homestand in July.”
Tigers have always been more aggressive getting their injured pitchers back. And, it hasn’t had a real negative for r on their performance or long term health.
@MK, not sure where you heard this. Pitchers come back when they are ready.
Suarez and Marte both on the bench for today’s game. Hopefully, Suarez is just getting a rest.
Greene Doesn’t really matter, it’s too little too late. If you had Burns, Lowder, Abbott, Williamson and ??? I might think about trading him for all you can get. I know many might disagree but they Reds need people all over the field.
No disagreement here. The present roster has proven it is not good enough to win 90 games. To improve, and we have to concur that is the objective and is needed, then we are going to have to trade pieces of value from one of our areas of strength. To me that is starting pitching and corner IF. No that is not Singer or Hayes or Lowe or even Suarez. You wont get what you need for average level ballplayers. You have to sacrifice and this likely translates to 2-3 of our better (or potentially really better) players to get 2 proven good ones in return. The alternative is to continue counting on your current guys and there is a good bit of data that suggests that wont get you to 90 wins. Kind of what NK tried this year.
At least Dunn given his 3rd and final chance probably at least looks like this years Norris Hopper or maybe he turns into Chris Taylor and sustains it.
If Hinds had shown anything like this even with the K which Dunn still does as well. He would be here too.
So far this time around, he’s looked as a solid defender, base runner and .800 OPS CF type of player. Along with Bleday and maybe Marte, they’d become an acceptable OF unit, something Reds haven’t had in quite sometime.
I really hope Suarez can rest and retool so to speak. We need him so badly to be like he was last year. A veteran like him should be able to tune up and get back in the groove again. He could be pinch hitting you know.
Eugenio Suarez is struggling, mightily.
There is age at work. There is injury at work.
He’s hitting .209-.287-.336-.662 overall.
He’s striking out 31/% of the time.
In 50 PA since coming off the IL, he’s 7 for 43 (.163) with 17 K.
His decline in numbers is alarming from 2025 to 2026:
Hard hit rate percentile has gone from 78% to 4%
HR rate 7.5 to 2.7 (career low)
Exit velocity 90.2 to 86.1 (career low)
Final 53 games last season: .189
Since trade to Seattle last July 31: .197 in 335 at-bats
He’s had to play more 3B, and he’s been a wreck.
He’s -4 in defensive runs saved (115th among 3B).
Copied from a Lance McAlister post on X, for reference.
Keep the seat on the Louisville bus warm for Maxwell Mr. Mey …… he’ll be riding it soon
True. But sad at the same time that a waiver wire guy unclaimed by at least 6 other NL teams (Paddack) survives over our best at Louisville. And that includes 2-3 previous guys who were DFAd rather than offered a return trip. Just awful.
Paddack was a FA signing.
He cleared waivers. No other team claimed him, thus sticking the Marlins with his $4M salary.
I am sick of Sam Moll ! It’s time for the reds to cut bait!