SAN DIEGO – The Cincinnati Reds plan to add a right-hander with a 100-mph fastball to their bullpen when they their next series against the Athletics in Sacramento this weekend.
Chase Burns, the power-pitching rookie with eight big-league starts of experience, has been on the injured list the past four weeks because of a Grade 1 flexor strain near his elbow.
Chase Burns
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But he has passed every test along the way on a throwing program, including a bullpen session on Sept. 9, and is to be activated from the IL for the final 16-game stretch run as a carefully scheduled reliever
“It’s fine by me. They were great at communicating along the way, and I’m sure there’s more to come with communicating what day and what inning and how many pitches,” Burns said.
“I’m excited.”
Burns, the No. 2 overall pick out of Wake Forest in last year’s draft, already was on a workload limit this season, which began at high-A Dayton and continued to Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville before his June 24 debut against the Yankees.
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“We’re trying to balance him finishing the year, because we think that’s really important,” manager Terry Francona said, “and we think he can help us win, when he pitches, which is also really important.
“We just need to be really cognizant of a myriad of things.”
Burns, who has an exceptional slider to go with high-velocity fastball, is expected to be used on a controlled schedule, including as a “bridge after the starter,” Francona said. “Now we might need to get somebody in between him (and the starter if it’s in the middle of an inning) so he can kind of warm up like he normally does.
“You’re not going to see him get up in the middle of an inning and come in with runners on base, stuff like that,” Francona said.
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Burns has thrown 100 1/3 innings across 21 starts at four levels of the organization, which are lifetime highs at any level.
He has a 5.24 ERA in eight big-league starts, with 57 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings – 3.72 in six starts since he tipped his pitches in Boston and failed to get out of the first inning.
He has struck out 10 or more in four of his last five starts, the exception in that stretch being his rain-shortened, one-inning start in the Speedway Classic in Bristol, Tennessee.
If the Reds put together enough wins to squeeze back into the playoff picture, he could be an important weapon in that effort.
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“There are days where he’ll come in and maybe finish the game. We’ll just see how he’s doing,” Francona said. “And then dependent on how much he pitches, we’ll have him be down for whatever (pitching coach Derek Johnson) and the guys think he needs.”
He’s not likely to be used as an opener, Francona said, with Brady Singer, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Zach Littell and Andrew Abbott locked into the rotation and two days off on the remaining schedule.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Chase Burns cleared to join Cincinnati Reds bullpen for A’s opener