If it feels to you as if the Cincinnati Reds have hit a bit of a lull this spring, you aren’t alone.
The starting pitching – the bedrock on which this franchise is built – has seen some hiccups of late, chief among them the elbow issue that Hunter Greene is dealing with and the ripple effect that’s had through the entire team. Chase Burns got knocked around just yesterday, Nick Lodolo allowed 8 baserunners (and a Jonathan India homer) in just 3.0 IP over the weekend, and Brady Singer still boasts a 9.00 ERA despite yesterday’s scoreless trio of frames.
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Eugenio Suárez is off at the World Baseball Classic, as is top prospect Edwin Arroyo. The event itself has so far been magical to watch, and perhaps that’s taken a lot of the spotlight off what’s going on in Cactus and Grapefruit League play, respective.
There have also been some notable cuts, with Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Chase Petty shipped over to minor league camp just yesterday.
It’s truly the dog days of spring training at the moment. Players are trying to actively get better and into regular season shape without overdoing it in games that don’t matter, trying to perform well while not giving away any of their tips or tweaks or secrets until the games actually matter. Players are also doing their best to simply stay healthy and get to Opening Day at 100%, and sometimes that doesn’t make for the best on-field product when paired with daily exhibition games.
Still, this is a Reds club with ample players trying to prove themselves, and Rhett Lowder is chief among them. He’ll take the mound on Monday afternoon at home in Goodyear opposite the Athletics, and will do so a leader in the clubhouse for one of the opening(s) at the end of the team’s starting rotation. He’s looked brilliant so far this spring, fully removed from the dual injuries that cost him almost all of 2025, and is poised to be a key part of the team from the outset in 2026.
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First pitch on Monday is set for 4:05 PM ET, though sadly there is no televised coverage of the game. You can listen in via 1360 WSAI, however.
Here’s how the Reds will line up for the day (just a day removed from split-squad action where everyone in camp played at least a bit).
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