{"id":700805,"date":"2026-05-16T22:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/700805\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T22:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:12:28","slug":"chris-paddack-set-for-reds-debut-on-saturday-vs-guardians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/700805\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Paddack set for Reds debut on Saturday vs. Guardians"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was once a time where saying the Cincinnati Reds are going to have Chris Paddack starting for them tonight would have inspired a big pile of confidence. Back before the 2019 season, for instance, he was rated as high as the #34 overall prospect in the sport by MLB Pipeline, was a consensus Top 100 prospect across all evaluating platforms, and he threw 140.2 IP of almost ~3 bWAR ball as a rookie for the San Diego Padres<\/a> later that year.<\/p>\n

My kids are growing like weeds. My right ankle kills me most days when I wake up and try to get out of bed.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

2019 was a lifetime ago, it seems.<\/p>\n

Paddack turned 30 this year, and is now about four full years removed from Tommy John surgery. His average fastball velocity is down 2.3 mph from his post-TJ peak in 2023, and he\u2019s bounced around through Minnesota<\/a>, Detroit<\/a>, and Miami since then. The results, shall we say, have been less than enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Paddack was cut loose by the Marlins earlier this year after 7 appearances in which he allowed 6 homers and 26 earned runs in just 30.2 IP of work. That, though, made him a no-strings-attached addition for the Reds<\/a> earlier in the week when they realized they were smack dab in the middle of a starting pitching crisis, and Paddack will get the start for Cincinnati<\/a> on Saturday up in Cleveland<\/a> against the Guardians.<\/p>\n

Rhett Lowder<\/a> is out with shoulder issues. Brandon Williamson<\/a> is, too. Hunter Greene<\/a> is still sidelined with his elbow recovery, and Chase Petty<\/a> picked the worst possible time to bite off a bad blister. So, it\u2019s Paddack time for the Reds, who are obviously hoping they can catch lightning in a bottle with him and at least help tread water until reinforcements arrive.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

We shall see tonight beginning at 6:10 PM ET.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Reds will line up to start behind Paddack on Saturday, with a lineup stacked mostly with righties as they are set to face lefty starter Joey Cantillo<\/a>:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was once a time where saying the Cincinnati Reds are going to have Chris Paddack starting for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,12054,1418,752,535,50,4259,135,147,182,2102,1270,778,58,822,4,25,536,6967,18],"class_list":["post-700805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-baseball","tag-brandon-williamson","tag-chase-petty","tag-chris-paddack","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-cleveland","tag-detroit","tag-florida","tag-hunter-greene","tag-joey-cantillo","tag-miami","tag-miami-marlins","tag-minnesota","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-reds","tag-rhett-lowder","tag-san-diego-padres"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116586554529272252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700805","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=700805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}