The Reds received some difficult news on the pitching front this week. Rookie right-hander Rhett Lowder, who has been out all season with a forearm strain, suffered a new injury during a rehab start at Triple-A Louisville on Thursday.
Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com) that Lowder sustained a “fairly significant” strain of his left oblique. Francona noted that the team still didn’t know the specific timeline as they awaited the results of imaging from Friday morning. In any case, it’s certainly going to delay his return to the big league rotation.
Lowder, 23, was the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft. The Wake Forest product flew through the minors and received his first MLB call last August. That was motivated partially by injury, but he maintained his rotation spot through the end of the season and took the ball six times. Lowder managed a 1.17 ERA across his first 30 2/3 big league innings. His MLB strikeout and walk numbers weren’t nearly as impressive, but he’d fanned more than a quarter of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate over 22 minor league starts.
That positioned him to compete for a spot at the back of the rotation in Spring Training. Lowder reported some elbow soreness during his offseason throwing program, leading the Reds to slow-play him and have him begin the season on the injured list. They sent him to their Arizona complex on May 6. He made one High-A appearance five days later and jumped up to Louisville on May 16. Lowder only recorded one out and allowed four runs during his first start with the Bats. He suffered the injury yesterday on his first pitch of the second inning after tossing a scoreless frame in the first.
The Reds figure to pull Lowder off his current rehab assignment. They’ll probably move him to the 60-day injured list when they next need to create a 40-man roster spot. That would backdate to Opening Day and would not impact his eligibility for reinstatement beyond this weekend.