The Cincinnati Reds will send right handed starting pitcher Rookie Davis to Triple-A Louisville tomorrow. The team is off today, so they won’t make the move until tomorrow. Davis, who has been on the team since spring training ended, though he did see time on the disabled list after being hit by a pitch, has struggled with the team.
In his five starts for the Reds Rookie Davis managed to throw just 19.0 innings where he had a 7.58 ERA. He allowed 29 hits, walked 13 batters and had 15 strikeouts in that time. The 24-year-old struggled to get through five innings, doing so only once on the year, on May 3rd.
Who it is that will take the scheduled start for Davis on Saturday is unknown. We do know who it won’t be, though. Amir Garrett and Cody Reed both are ineligible to come up unless they are taking over for someone heading to the disabled list, which we don’t believe we have someone doing that yet (they could replace a position player, if an injury were to occur). Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer has also been told that it won’t be Robert Stephenson.
OK, been told Stephenson will not be joining the rotation. Likely to be a Triple-A guy
— Zach Buchanan (@ZachENQ) May 10, 2017
That leaves the Reds with a few options. On the 40-man roster the starting pitchers include Jackson Stephens and Lisalverto Bonilla in Triple-A, and Luis Castillo in Double-A. Stephens actually started today for Louisville and didn’t make it out of the 1st inning, giving up eight hits and six runs, while walking a batter. I can’t imagine he’d get the call up if they sent him to the mound today.
Luis Castillo is scheduled to pitch tonight for Pensacola, so that is worth keeping an eye on. If he takes the mound, then it’s not going to be him. That would leave Lisalverto Bonilla. He would make the most sense, coming in from Triple-A and would be fully rested and he’s got some big league experience.
There’s always the chance that the team could just go with a “bullpen day” and go with several relievers to get through the day. Given how the bullpen has been used and abused, this seems unlikely.