The Cincinnati Reds have been without Chase Burns for exactly one month as I type this. On August 8th he struck out 10 batters and allowed one run in 6.0 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was his last appearance as he was moved to the 15-day injured list with a right flexor strain a few days later. Manager Terry Francona noted to the media before the start of tonight’s game that Burns has a bullpen session on Tuesday and if that goes well that he could be activated on Friday. This was first reported by C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic.
There had been some ups-and-downs for Chase Burns after he was promoted to join the Reds in the big leagues. In his eight starts he had a 5.24 ERA while giving up 33 hits and walking 13 batters in 34.1 innings. He had also struck out 57 of the 151 batters that he faced.
Things had gone better for Burns after his disastrous start in Boston where it seemed the Red Sox were able to see that he was tipping pitches and they scored five runs against him in 0.1 innings before he was pulled from the game. In the six starts that followed his ERA was 3.72 and he held hitters to a .202 average.
It wasn’t clear what role that Chase Burns would be returning to. Between his time in the minor leagues and major leagues this season, Burns has thrown 100.1 innings. He threw 100.0 innings in 2024 while pitching for Wake Forest. That would lead you to believe there’s probably more innings available for him, particularly with just three weeks remaining in the regular season. But the Reds may want to utilize him in a more specific way out of the bullpen than throwing him into the rotation and pushing someone else into a relief role where they may not be as effective as Burns could be.
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