The Reds announced that left-hander Andrew Abbott has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 20, due to a left shoulder strain. Right-hander Alan Busenitz has been selected to take his place on the roster. To open a 40-man spot for Busenitz, catcher Austin Wynns has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
At this point, the club hasn’t provided any information on when Abbott suffered the injury or how long they expect him to be out. He last took the ball on Sunday, tossing 83 pitches over five innings. His velocity was down a bit, per Statcast, with his fastball averaging 91.6 miles per hour. He was at 92.6 mph the previous start, perhaps indicating he wasn’t 100% last time out.
Regardless, it’s an unfortunate development for the Reds and their rotation. Abbott has been a mainstay this year, with a 3.72 ERA over his 25 starts on the season. Him and Hunter Greene are the two team leaders in innings but Greene landed on the IL last week due to elbow soreness. With Abbott now joining Greene on the IL, the club is without the two pillars of their rotation. That’s on top of Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson, who are also on the IL.
Absences have been a key storyline for the Reds this year. In addition to those pitching issues, their position player mix currently has Wynns, Jeimer Candelario, Jake Fraley, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain and Nick Martini on the IL. They also didn’t have Noelvi Marté for the first 80 games of the year due to a PED suspension, lost TJ Friedl to the IL for a while, amid other issues.
Despite those challenges, the club is 63-64 and hanging in the playoff race. They are currently five games back of Atlanta for the final postseason spot in the National League, but staying afloat will be more challenging with the rotation in such trouble. Abbott was the scheduled starter today, so the club may have to do some kind of bullpen game, then proceed with a rotation consisting of Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Carson Spiers and Julian Aguiar. Spiers and Martinez are swingmen who have moved into rotation roles due to injuries while Aguiar was just called up and has one major league start to his name.
The club has an off-day on Monday but then plays eight games in seven days thanks to a double-header next Friday, meaning they may have to call upon some depth. Lyon Richardson is on the 40-man roster but has been pitching in relief lately. Connor Phillips has a 9.92 ERA in Triple-A this year and just returned from a two-month stint at the club’s spring complex trying to get back on track. Prospect Rhett Lowder is at Triple-A but was just promoted there and has only one start at that level. Justus Sheffield is around in a non-roster capacity but has a 6.88 ERA in Triple-A this year.
For now, Busenitz will give the club a fresh arm for their bullpen. He signed a minor league deal with the club in January and has logged 55 innings over 40 Triple-A appearances this year. He has a 3.93 ERA in that time, along with a 22.3% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. He is out of options and can’t be sent back down to the minors without first being exposed to waivers.
Wynns landed on the 10-day IL at the end of July due to a lat strain. It seems the club isn’t expecting him back any time soon, as he’s now ineligible to return until the final days of the regular season.