Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds just can’t seem to catch a break. The bullpen hasn’t exactly been good this year, but it’s also been full of injuries throughout the season, too. Emilio Pagan hasn’t pitched in nearly two months. The season began with Caleb Ferguson on the injured list. Pierce Johnson missed several weeks this month and Graham Ashcraft is currently on the 60-day injured list. And of course we can’t forget that the team also lost mop-up reliever Jose Trevino for a while, too. Now they are going to be without right-handed pitcher Tony Santillan, who was placed on the 15-day injured list with an oblique strain this afternoon. The Reds are calling up Zach McCambley from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster.
Overall the numbers for Tony Santillan in 2026 aren’t great. His ERA sits at 5.23 in his 34 games pitched. His season has been weird in many ways. He pitched in 14 games through the end of April and only once did he allow runs. In that one game he did give up three runs to Detroit, but Cincinnati won that contest.
Then May began and the wheels didn’t just fall off, they exploded off and sent shrapnel raining down on anything near them. From May 1st through June 3rd Santillan pitched in 12 games and allowed 14 earned runs in just 9.1 innings. He walked six batters, gave up 17 hits, allowed seven home runs, and struck out just seven of the 51 hitters he faced during that time. It was about as rough of a stretch as it could be and Cincinnati didn’t have much they could do about it as he is out of options and to send him to the minor leagues they would have needed to expose him to waivers. If he cleared them he could then have chosen to become a free agent.
Fortunately for the Reds and for Santillan, he seemed to straight things out after that disastrous 5-week stretch. Over his last eight games pitched he’s allowed just one earned run on four hits with one walk in 8.0 innings. His stuff seemed better than it had been all year long. Unfortunately he’s now going to miss time with an oblique injury. How much time he’s expected to miss isn’t clear.
Cincinnati is calling up Zach McCambley. He joined the organization in late May when the team traded Rece Hinds to Miami. The right-handed reliever pitched in two games with Louisville right after the trade but then joined the Reds bullpen. His first two outings saw him throw 3.0 shutout innings with two walks and four strikeouts, but his third outing saw him give up three runs in an inning against San Diego. He then headed back to the minor leagues where he’s pitched in three games with Louisville and allowed two runs in 7.0 innings with nine strikeouts and three walks.
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