{"id":621317,"date":"2026-03-13T04:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621317\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T04:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:52:11","slug":"caleb-ferguson-to-begin-season-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621317\/","title":{"rendered":"Caleb Ferguson To Begin Season On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reds reliever\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/ferguca01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Caleb Ferguson<\/a> will open the season on the 15-day injured list, manager Terry Francona told reporters (link via <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/reds\/news\/caleb-ferguson-suffers-oblique-injury-at-reds-spring-training\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Sheldon of MLB.com<\/a>). The southpaw strained his right oblique and will be shelved for at least a few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The injury will delay Ferguson\u2019s team debut. The Reds signed him to a one-year, $4.5MM free agent contract. Ferguson is coming off a 3.58 earned run average over 65 1\/3 innings split between the Pirates and Mariners. His 18.9% strikeout percentage was easily a career worst, but he compensated by allowing one of the lowest hard contact rates in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson hasn\u2019t pitched well this spring, giving up five runs while allowing nine of 13 batters faced to reach base (six hits and three walks). His track record locked him into a bullpen role either way, of course. Ferguson and trade acquisition\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/burkebr01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brock Burke<\/a> would have been the two left-handers guaranteed to be on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n<p>His injury should increase\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mollsa01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sam Moll\u2019s<\/a> chances of breaking camp. The 34-year-old is out of options and on the roster bubble as the #3 lefty reliever on the depth chart. Moll gave up a 6.38 ERA despite an impressive 27% strikeout rate across 23 big league appearances last year. He has worked six scoreless innings with only one hit allowed this spring, but he has walked six of 23 hitters.<\/p>\n<p>Francona said the Reds aren\u2019t committed to replacing Ferguson with a left-hander, so Moll still doesn\u2019t seem fully assured of a roster spot. Cincinnati would need to trade him or place him on waivers if they squeeze him out.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also at least one spot available for a hard-throwing righty like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/meylu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Luis Mey<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phillco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Connor Phillips<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maxweza01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Zach Maxwell<\/a>\u00a0or the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/03\/pirates-reds-swap-tyler-callihan-for-kyle-nicolas.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently acquired<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nicolky01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Kyle Nicolas<\/a>. Southpaw\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willibr02.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brandon Williamson<\/a> makes sense for a long relief role. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antonte01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tejay Antone<\/a>,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/danneha01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hagen Danner<\/a> and\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marteyu01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Yunior Marte<\/a> are among the non-roster invitees vying for jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reds reliever\u00a0Caleb Ferguson will open the season on the 15-day injured list, manager Terry Francona told reporters (link&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,9097,4],"class_list":["post-621317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-caleb-ferguson","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116220077413145299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}