Reds broadcast predicting Brandon Williamson injury is a bad look for coaching staff

The Cincinnati Reds lost one of their top starters this past week to injury. Brandon Williamson was placed on the 15-day injured list with a torn UCL, and the left-hander will now have to undergo Tommy John surgery. The injury swiftly ended Williamson's 2024 campaign, and now his 2025 season is in jeopardy as well. But could the injury have been prevented?

That's a tough question to answer, especially considering the exceedingly high number of pitcher elbow and shoulder injuries that have wreaked havoc on Major League Baseball this season. It seems like, more than ever before, pitchers are suffering catastrophic injuries at a phenomenal clip.

But during the Reds' radio broadcast on Tuesday night, Jeff Brantley made some comments that raised some red flags. Brantley, a former pitcher who is known throughout Reds Country for his vast knowledge of the game (especially on the pitching side of things) and his unabashed opinions, forecasted Williamson's injury.

Reds radio broadcast forecasted Brandon Williamson's injury

During the radio broadcast, before the start of the second inning, Brantley was quite candid about what he was seeing from the Reds' starter. "I'm going to tell you what Tommy, he does not look good. He looks like his arm's hurting," Brantley said. "I thought that in the first inning, and here we are in the second. The warmup was not pretty. And you start doing different things, and you start moving that shoulder around, that's not a good sign."

One batter later, Williamson delivered a pitch, immediately grabbed at his left elbow, and was in obvious pain. Brantley then remarked, "I knew that was coming."

Both Brantley and his broadcast partner Tommy Thrall spent a good portion of the first inning talking about how Williamson's delivery just didn't look right. So the question then becomes, if the two gentlemen in the radio booth could see what was happening, how did the Reds' coaching staff miss it?

Could the Reds coaching staff have prevented Brandon Williamson's injury?

None of this is to say that manager David Bell or pitching coach Derek Johnson are responsible for Williamson's injury. That's a bit unfair. For all we know, Williamson reassured the coaching staff that he was fine, either during the first inning mound visit or in between innings. Players are competitors, and the last thing they want to do is be removed from a game.

But considering that Williamson had been sidelined all season with a shoulder injury and received just one rehab start at Triple-A before being activated off the IL, one has to wonder if the Reds rushed him back to the big leagues much too quickly at the end of a lost season for the club.

Williamson was sharp in his first three starts of the season, but there was something terribly wrong when he was on the mound this past week. Now set to undergo Tommy John surgery, Reds fans are unlikely to see Williamson return to the mound before the 2026 season.

Injuries are part of the game, and what happened to Williamson on Tuesday night was certainly unfortunate. It's also incredibly unfair to pin all the blame on the Reds' coaching staff. However, it's certainly not a good look.

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