Reds bullpen chaos is creating the perfect opportunity for Tejay Antone

Spring training is supposed to be where bullpens start to sort themselves out. For the Cincinnati Reds so far, it’s mostly been a reminder that bullpen depth is just another way to say that they’ll need more than one plan. 

Connor Phillips, Zach Maxwell, and Luis Mey all have the kind of raw ingredients that make pitching coaches giddy. And yet, early camp has also shown the same thing that tends to follow young flamethrowers around like a shadow: if the strikes aren’t there, nothing else matters. 

That’s where Tejay Antone slides into this story like the most obvious solution the Reds don’t want to admit they need.

Reds’ bullpen volatility makes Tejay Antone feel oddly essential

The spring-training snapshot basically spells it out. In a tiny sample, Cincinnati has already shown you the two versions of a bullpen inning: Antone’s version and everybody else’s roller coaster. Antone logged a clean inning with zeroes across the board — no runs, no hits, no drama. Around him, it got loud in a hurry. 

Maxwell walked four batters in just two-thirds of an inning and gave up a run — pure stuff, messy execution, the kind of outing that looks electric until it doesn’t. Mey recorded only two outs and was charged with five earned runs. Phillips also got just two outs and allowed three earned runs.

Phillips’ 2025 arc is exactly why the Reds aren’t giving up on him. A 2.88 ERA in 25 innings overall, and that dominant final six weeks (1.80 ERA over his last 17 appearances) is the kind of evidence teams cling to for a reason: it looked real. 

The problem is that spring training is the worst time to sell the waiting game on command. Those outings are happening right now, and if the control wobbles, the Reds can’t just hand him leverage innings out of hope.

Maxwell is even more extreme. “Big Sugar” is a perfect nickname because the stuff is pure adrenaline — 99-plus and missing bats when he’s in the zone. But the command still decides whether he’s a weapon or an adventure. Early camp struggles don’t erase the ceiling, but they absolutely affect the Opening Day math.

And then there’s Mey: 103-plus mph velocity that doesn’t even sound real, plus a 3.43 ERA in 21 big-league innings last year. But that walk rate (7.3 BB/9) is the blinking warning light. If you’re handing free passes to major-league hitters, 103 turns into damage control fast.

Antone isn’t the “shiny” option. But when he’s right, he attacks hitters, he misses bats, and he doesn’t need perfect conditions to get outs. The truth is, the Reds don’t need Antone to play hero. They just need him to be the stabilizer and not turn an outing into a four-batter walk parade.

If Phillips, Maxwell, and Mey are all clicking, great — the Reds have a scary bullpen. But if spring is already showing you how quickly that can unravel, the smartest move is to stock the bridge with someone who’s built for it.

That’s why the bullpen chaos is actually good news for Antone. The opportunity is sitting right there: be healthy, keep looking sharp, and suddenly the conversation isn’t “nice story.” It’s “how do the Reds leave him off the roster?”