Cincinnati Reds have amassed a nice collection of starting pitchers led by Dan Straily for the 2017 season

The Cincinnati Reds’ front office is looking for pitching depth, while they have a nice rotation ready for 2017.

The Cincinnati Reds’ front office announced that adding pitching depth was its number one off-season priority.  This is despite spending the last several seasons adding talented, young pitchers to the organization.  Now the Reds just need let the youngsters play.

The Reds established a Big Three in their pitching rotation during the second half of the 2016 season.  Anthony DeSclafani, Dan Straily, and Brandon Finnegan looked the part of a good rotation.  The entire team gave up too many home runs, but Straily and Finnegan were especially vulnerable to the long ball.

Straily’s only weakness is that he gave up too many home runs, though.  Once he went into the rotation he made every start and looked good nearly every game.  He was the obvious number one starter in 2017, if only for a short time before returning to the back of the rotation.

DeSclafani was ready to be the top starter heading into the 2016 season.  He didn’t make it to opening day before an injury shut him down the first half of the season.  He was originally scheduled to make the opening day start and may make the 2017 opener start.

Finnegan is a more worrisome situation.  He was a first year starter and gave up a ton of home runs.  If he hadn’t been able to make every start, he wouldn’t be in this discussion.  On the other hand, he did take a no hitter into the seventh late in the season.

After the Big Three starters, the Cincinnati Reds have a long list of young pitchers who may be ready to take the ball every fifth day.

Robert Stephenson leads the list of young pitchers who are ready for a full-time start.  He has shown that he has the stuff to make in the big leagues.  He has not shown that he can go deep enough into games.

Tim Adleman also showed himself to be an effective starter for the Reds down the stretch.  Adleman qualifies as a self-made man having been signed from a try out.  He just kept getting better each year.

Another starter who may have a chance is top prospect, Amir Garrett.  Being  a lefty could help Garrett as Finnegan is the only other left-handed starter.  Garrett is the Reds’ top pitching prospect and will make his MLB debut in 2017 or 2018.

Next: Homer Bailey is totally unreliable

Want your voice heard? Join the Blog Red Machine team!

Write for us!

All of this discussion has skipped mentioning Homer Bailey and Keyvius Sampson.  Bailey shouldn’t be counted on because he has only pitched eight games in two seasons.  Sampson could have been included, but when talking about depth you don’t want to discuss starting your long reliever.