Cincinnati Reds: Rookie Davis is definitely a rookie

The Cincinnati Reds pitching dilemma

The Cincinnati Reds have been trying out youth at every position. Their farm system is one of the best in the league, and most of the prospects are close to the major leagues. Also, several have contributed already, such as Philip Ervin and Luis Castillo. Furthermore, this team is building up a nice chemistry together to grind out the rest of the season.

This franchise is built for the future, and should clash with the rest of the National League Central. But, there will be constant struggles before becoming competitive again. The Reds rank 29th in all of baseball with a 5.21 ERA. Not sugarcoating anything here, that is terrible. But a crucial reason for that is youth. They will make mistakes just like everyone else.

There are several young guns in the rotation such as Amir Garrett, Tyler Mahle, Sal Romano, and Jackson Stephens. But one key pitcher to look at in this article will be right hander Rookie Davis.

The right handed Rookie for the Cincinnati Reds

Young pitcher Rookie Davis came over to the Reds in the Aroldis Chapman trade. Their return seemed slightly diminished due to Chapman’s pending suspension at the time. But the Reds were able to acquire a couple pieces for depth in the system, as it wasn’t as blossomed as 2017. With that said, getting production from any of those prospects in the trade is a positive.

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Davis was great in rookie ball this season with a 1.93 ERA, but he has struggled from that point on. Since then, he has averaged a 6.00 ERA. This is concerning, because the Reds have shown that they’ll bring guys up no matter what. In the young righty’s case, that was not the right decision.

Since being with the big league ball club, the starting pitcher has tossed a horrid 8.63 ERA in 24.0 innings, mostly before his May demotion. Even with the Reds, that’s not a great place to be. With Cincinnati, Davis has utilized his fastball 50.5% of the time.

His fastball usage is alright, but his location of the pitch hasn’t been there enough to be successful.

In his last start, the right hander allowed five runs in three innings of work, and took the loss against the Cardinals. The Cardinals’ hitters were able to jump on the ball and were comfortable at the plate. This is Davis and his thoughts about his start, provided by MLB.com: “Obviously, whenever you go out there, you want to throw a quality start. Those guys are right in the thick of things and you want to beat them. It came down to I didn’t pitch like I needed to. I didn’t force early contact when I needed to.”

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Next Spring, next spot

The young pitcher should be able to bounce back from this, and learn from the rest of the season. With a solid turnaround, he is one of the many guys for rotation battles in the spring. The righty has the resiliency to do so, and looks to rebound and get back on the horse. Whoever shows consistency on the mound will most likely have a spot come April.

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For Davis, it will be a matter of fastball command and working in the off speed. If he can accomplish that, he will be right up there with the rest of the competition. With that said, finishing out the rest of the year strong will be pivotal for momentum into next season. Spring Training will be interesting for Reds camp next season.