Nick Lodolo has officially been placed on the injured list for the fourth time in the 2024 season, following a disastrous regular season in 2023. The Cincinnati Reds placed their promising left-hander on the 15-day injured list on Wednesday afternoon, this time with a sprained middle finger on his pitching hand.
This comes just one day after I mentioned that the team’s already thin pitching staff had become the club’s default problem, and this news just helps to exacerbate the situation. Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, and Graham Ashcraft are already on the injured list after playing in the team’s Opening Day rotation, and Frankie Montas was traded before the deadline.
The silver lining in the above tweet is that Brandon Williamson appears to be well enough to return to the professional mound. I’m not sure it’s worth hurrying him back to’save’ what remains of the Reds’ poor season, though, because the team’s current crop of’starters’ consists primarily of relievers Nick Martinez and Jacob Junis, the latter of whom will start tonight’s game against Oakland.
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At one point this season, Lodolo was playing like the one-time potential ace we all hoped to see when fit. But lately, he’s been pitching as if something was simply awry – he’s allowed 38 runs in his last 45.2 innings across 9 starts, which converts to an ERA of you don’t want me to write the figure.
Here’s hope the 115.1 IPs Lodolo logged this year provide as a better basis for 2025 than his lost 2023 did for this year. That’s because, you know, the 2024 Reds season is pretty much officially over.
