Cincinnati Reds’ Amir Garrett has become the team’s best starting pitcher

Three starts into his career with the Cincinnati Reds, Amir Garrett has established himself as the staff ace.

With five starting pitchers on the DL the Cincinnati Reds needed a hero and his name is Amir Garrett.  The Reds are already down Homer Bailey, Rookie Davis, Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan, and Nick Travieso.  For the record those are the four projected starting pitchers from after the Dan Straily deal and Garrett’s projected top competition for the last spot in the rotation in Travieso.  The Reds have been watching Garrett for several years, but their tremendous patience appears to have paid off.

Three starts into his MLB career, Garrett is leading the Reds in strikeouts with 21 over 19 2/3 innings.  He has one fewer start than Opening Day starter Scott Feldman so far. Only Feldman, Garrett, and fan favorite Bronson Arroyo have answered the call for every start as the Reds are on the fourth go around in the rotation.

Since the season started, Finnegan, Davis, and Sal Romano have all been injured or sent back to Louisville after making a start.  As unfortunate as the injuries are, none of the above mentioned three averaged as much as four innings per start.  In fact, only Garrett is averaging six or more innings per start at  just over six and a half innings per start.

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The secondary numbers for the Cincinnati Reds’ new ace support that he may be the man for awhile.

Coming up through the minors Garrett maintained a WHIP of 1.24 over 494 innings pitched.  While his higher WHIP results usually matched a higher batting average against, it always matched a higher walk rate.  In the minors he allowed 204 walks over five seasons, which is OK without being great.

Since the start of this season, Garrett has only walked 3 over 19 2/3 innings.  That has helped him maintain his 0.86 WHIP which is leading all of the starters who had made multiple starts.  His 1.83 ERA leads all starters and is fourth among active pitchers.

What should allow Garrett to maintain these numbers is his low pitch per plate appearance count.  Through three starts he is only using 3.66 pitches per plate appearance and 13.9 per inning pitched.  That is a large part of how he has been able to inch toward seven innings per start.

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Garrett may not be able to keep it up.  So far he has been the Reds’ best pitcher by a wide margin.  With just a little bit of luck he can be a cornerstone of the Reds’ rotation for years to come.