It's time for the Reds to bring Buck Farmer back to Cincinnati

Don't look now, but Buck Farmer is dealing down at Triple-A Louisville. The Cincinnati Reds designated Farmer for assignment earlier this season and then the two sides renegotiated a minor league deal.

Farmer has been in the Derby City since mid-May. The former Detroit Tigers reliever broke camp with the Reds and after a few weeks it became obvious that the team needed to go in a different direction.

Now, I'm not suggesting that Farmer is all of the sudden return to the big leagues and consistently throw up zeros, but with how poorly this Cincinnati bullpen has performed, it can't get much worse.

The Reds bullpen has been awful.

Buck Farmer cannot be any worse than what we saw from the combination of Dauri Moreta and Hunter Strickland on Wednesday night. Strickland toed the rubber in the ninth with the Cincinnati Reds nursing a one-run lead over the New York Mets.

After getting the first out of the inning, Strickland allowed a single to left field and game-tying RBI double. Moreta entered in the 10th with the game knotted at three runs apiece. After two runs crossed the plate to make it 5-3, Moreta allowed a two-out, three-run homer to Brandon Nimmo that broke the game wide open.

The night before, Strickland blew another save opportunity. About the only reliable reliever on the Cincinnati Reds active roster is (gulp) Jeff Hoffman. Alexis Díaz, Tony Santillan, Vladimir Gutierrez, Lucas Sims, and Art Warren are all on the IL, though Díaz is expected back very soon.

It's time for the Reds to bring Buck Farmer back to the big leagues.

Buck Farmer has allowed just one earned run in his last eight appearances for the Louisville Bats. The right-hander has an ERA of 0.93 during that span and 20 punch outs in 9.2 innings of work. More impressive, however, is the zero walks that Farmer has issued during that time.

The Reds selected Jared Solomon to be the team's 27th man for today's double-header versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. But with Lucas Sims, Justin Wilson, and Tejay Antone out for the season and Tony Santillan out until September, Cincinnati is going to need reinforcements.

Farmer can give David Bell multiple innings and act as mentor for the young group of reliever in the Cincinnati Reds bullpen. I know this more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but something has to be done, and fast.