Reds might've just fixed their biggest flaw before final playoff push

The New York Mets were swept right out of the City of Brotherly Love this week. The Philadelphia Phillies rattled off four straight over their NL East rivals, and with the Cincinnati Reds idle on Thursday, Terry Francona's club pulled to within 1½ games of the final NL Wild Card spot.

While Thursday represented an off-day for the Redlegs, that didn't prevent Cincinnati's front office from adding a couple of reinforcements for the stretch run. The Reds activated both Chase Burns and Graham Ashcraft from the IL, and optioned Lyon Richardson and Yosver Zulueta back to Triple-A Louisville.

Burns, who started eight games for Cincinnati this season, will pitch out of the bullpen upon his return to the active roster. Reds fans shouldn't expect this to be a permanent change going forward, but with only two weeks remaining in the regular season, using Burns in relief was about their only option.

Reds add Chase Burns and Graham Ashcraft as they try to chase down the Mets in the NL Wild Card

How and when the Reds deploy Burns will be fascinating to watch. Piggybacking Burns off a soft-tosser like starter Zach Littell could be a tremendous use of his electric fastball/ slider combination. The rookie has 57 punch outs in 34⅓ innings pitched, and adding that to the group of hard-throwing Reds relievers is only going to give Cincy's bullpen a boost down the stretch.

Ashcraft has had his fair share of ups and downs this season. The right-hander's first season coming out of the Reds bullpen has seen him sit down lefties with regularity, but struggle against righties. This could lead Francona to use Ashcraft in high-leverage situations late in games when the opposing lineup is loaded with left-handed hitters.

The Reds bullpen is now dominated by flamethrowers. Outside of Brent Suter, Nick Martinez and Scott Barlow, every single reliever is consistently hitting the upper 90s with his fastball. The Reds biggest weakness heading into the final few weeks of the season just got a major boost on Thursday.

After Andrew Abbott's dominant performance on Wednesday against the San Diego Padres and the off-day on Thursday, Cincinnati's relief corps will be well rested for the upcoming series in Sacramento against the Athletics. The Mets have a tall task this weekend with the playoff-hungry Texas Rangers and Jacob deGrom making a visit to Queens.

It's beginning to look like the chase for the final spot in NL Wild Card will come down to the wire, and having Burns and Ashcraft back will definitely give Francona some reliable options late in games.

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