CLEVELAND — Before the Cincinnati Reds’ game on Saturday night, Terry Francona met with the Reds’ pitchers to discuss the ongoing walks problem.
This year, the Reds’ bullpen has issued the most walks in baseball, averaging 2.6 walks per game.
In May, the Reds’ pitching staff as a whole has allowed 79 total walks. During that time frame, no other pitching staff has walked more than 67 batters, the median team has walked 47 batters and the Dodgers have only walked 32 batters.
“We have not commanded,” Francona said. “That’s the issue. I actually talked to our guys today. What I don’t think you say is, ‘Hey, don’t walk people.’ They’re not trying to walk people. I tried to get them to take the mindset of attack what you want to do. Just because you said it doesn’t mean it (happens).”
For most of April, the Reds statistically had the best bullpen in April. The unit has crashed back down to earth in May. With Emilio Pagán on the IL, Tony Santillan in the worst rut of his career and very ambiguous roles in the back of the bullpen, there hasn’t been enough consistency late in games.
On Saturday in Cleveland, the Reds led by two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Rookie Luis Mey, called up from Triple-A a couple of weeks ago, entered the game for his first leverage opportunity of the season. He walked two batters, allowed a run to score on a hit by pitch and was charged with two runs in ⅓ innings.
Mey was pressed into action because the bullpen wasn’t completely fresh. Francona stayed away from Santillan and Antone on Saturday. In addition to walks this year, there have been plenty of deep counts issued by the Reds’ bullpen. As a result, the relievers haven’t been very efficient. That means they have to pitch more on certain days, and are therefore unavailable for other games.
If the Reds’ bullpen had been commanding the ball better — five walks issued in the eighth inning on Friday between Graham Ashcraft and Brock Burke stand out in retrospect — then Mey might not have had to be on the mound for such a big spot on Saturday as other relievers could have been available.
“We’ve got some guys that aren’t commanding like they have,” Francona said. “Then, we have some younger kids who are struggling to find their place and what pitches they can throw and hitting the strike zone. It’s been a challenge.”
The Reds, who were incredible at pulling out close wins in April, have already seen a game get away from them late six times in May.
Tony Santillan took a loss in Pittsburgh on May 3, Emilio Pagán blew a save on May 4, a 2-0 lead in Chicago evaporated with Connor Phillips and Santillan pitching in the final few innings on May 5, Brock Burke walked in the game-winning run on May 6 on a night where Ashcraft also blew a save and Tony Santillan allowed two runs in extra innings on May 13. On May 6 in Cleveland, Mey gave up the lead, and Pierce Johnson allowed the go-ahead homer.
Francona has said that pitchers are missing too much out of the zone. And then when they try to get back in the zone, they’re throwing pitches over the heart of the plate that are getting crushed.
The bullpen is on a bad slide right now.
“We’re trying to get too far outside of what we can do and trying to do a little too much,” Johnson said. “We have electric stuff down there. We showed it early on in the season. It’s one of those things we need to clean up as a whole group. I don’t think one of us has outshined the rest of us in that category. We rally together. Focus on our strengths, stay within yourself and stay within the zone as much as you can.”
Pagán’s injury took place around the same time as Santillan started scuffling. Since then, the structure of the bullpen hasn’t really clicked together.
Ashcraft and Burke appear to be the top two relievers right now. On Friday, they couldn’t throw strikes. Ashcraft is having a nice season. But among pitchers with at least 15 innings, he has the fifth-worst walk rate in MLB (stats entering Saturday). Burke’s walk rate is in the bottom-10 percentile in MLB, and games like Friday’s and the loss against the Cubs show that there are nights with him where the command just isn’t where he needs it to be.
Francona hasn’t designated Ashcraft or Burke as the closer, but it feels like he’s building his game plan around getting them on the mound for the biggest spots in close games.
Behind them on the depth chart appear to be a group of four pitchers that includes Santillan, Tejay Antone, Johnson and Sam Moll.
Antone is off to a very good start, and he appears to be moving up into a higher leverage role. But he has still barely pitched in the big leagues this year.
The good news about Johnson is that he has the best walk rate in the entire bullpen (he’s at 7.9%, and the next-best is Santillan at 11.5%, which is well below average). But Johnson has been allowing a lot of hard contact. While he has a save this season, Francona hasn’t been saving Johnson specifically for high-leverage situations and has used Johnson as more of a jack of all trades middle reliever.
Moll is fantastic against lefties, but he has historically really struggled vs. RHP and has had a limited role over the years.
Santillan’s velocity is down, he has a 5.50 ERA and he has allowed homers in four of his last five outings.
Due to his struggles, Santillan has been pitching in different situations instead of specifically pitching the eighth inning like he did throughout 2025. But because of the state of the Reds’ bullpen, Santillan has still had to pitch in huge spots while he’s going through his struggles.
Francona used Santillan in a high-leverage seventh inning on Friday, and Santillan didn’t allow a run. It was a step forward.
“They’re our guys,” Francona said. “When they’re good, you pat them on the back. When they’re not, I don’t think you run from them. We stayed with Tony last night. He rewarded us. I think he feels better about himself. It may be baby steps.”
The next group of pitchers in the Reds’ bullpen are the rookies.
Phillips, who was as good as any young reliever in the big leagues last September, has hit a bit of a wall. He has the second-worst walk rate in MLB, and Saturday was another game that looked like it sped up on him.
Mey is a work in progress.
Rookie Zach Maxwell and 27-year-old Kyle Nicolas are currently in Triple-A. They’ve both had their shots in the big leagues, and they’ve struggled with command.
Because of the state of the Reds’ bullpen, the unit really needs some upside. Phillips, Mey, Maxwell and Nicolas have really great stuff. If it clicked with them, they have the talent to end up in a leverage role very quickly.
They haven’t been able to throw enough strikes.
Johnson would offer this advice to the rookies.
“Just have confidence in yourself and your stuff,” Johnson said. “There’s a reason you’re here. You’re in the big leagues. You’re at the highest level. Just go out there, trust your stuff. Our catchers have done a phenomenal job. Our defense has done a great job behind us. We need to trust our defense and not try to get swing and miss as much as we do. Some of these guys are going to have really, really long careers because of the stuff they have. We need to iron that stuff out now.”
Maxwell and Nicolas are the only relievers on the 40-man roster who are in Triple-A, so they’d be the easiest guys to call up if the Reds need a new arm in the bullpen.
Lyon Richardson probably deserves a shot. He had a really nice run for a while in the big leagues in 2025, he has great stuff and he looks really good in Triple-A. But roster dynamics make him tougher to add onto the big league roster — he’s not on the 40-man, he’s out of options and the Reds need the flexibility of being able to option a pitcher or two back and forth if they need a fresh arm on a specific day.
Caleb Ferguson should return soon from an oblique injury. He’s a good reliever with a strong track record. He’ll have to get his in-season legs back under him, but he has the ability to be a factor late in games.
There’s no easy fix right now in the Reds’ bullpen. The first step needs to be throwing more strikes.
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