CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns\u2019 second full season in professional baseball officially ended on Sunday when the team placed him on the injured list with a right groin strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being very cautious,\u201d Reds manager Terry Francona said. \u201cI think it makes sense to not push him for a three-inning start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft, Burns made 29 starts for the Reds this season; the last three were limited to just three innings in an attempt to curb his innings workload while pitching every five days to finish out the season.<\/p>\n
Burns finished the season throwing 154 1\/3 innings, an increase over the 109 1\/3 innings he threw in the minors and majors in 2025 and the 100 innings he threw in college in 2024.<\/p>\n
After starting the season in a battle for the fifth spot in the team\u2019s Opening Day rotation, Burns established himself as the Reds\u2019 No. 1 starter and one of the best in baseball, earning an All-Star nod and finishing the season 15-3 with a 2.86 ERA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not how I wanted it to end, but looking back and seeing how much growth and progress I\u2019ve made, going from not even knowing if I was gonna make the roster out of camp to being here and having a pretty successful season, I think it\u2019s gone a good way, and I\u2019m excited for next year,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n
Burns didn\u2019t pitch in the All-Star Game because he was resting a groin injury. He said he\u2019d dealt with soreness in his left and right groin throughout the season, but had learned to manage pitching with it. Burns spent time on the IL as a rookie with a forearm strain, but said he used that experience to learn how to train his body and had no issues with his forearm this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to feel great every time you go out and pitch, so I just kind of learned through that,\u201d Burns said. \u201cAll in all, I kind of have to pat myself on the back. I\u2019m excited for next year, just knowing what I know now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns allowed four earned runs in his trio of three-inning starts, with 14 strikeouts and six walks. For the season, he finished with 185 strikeouts and 54 walks.<\/p>\n
In July, the Reds signed Burns to a seven-year, $105 million extension through the 2023 season.<\/p>\n
The Reds wanted him to finish the season pitching so that he would have a better idea of what he needed to do to pitch a full season in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was the right thing to do, to pitch through September,\u201d said Reds starter Brady Singer, who has thrown at least 150 innings in each of the past five seasons. \u201cIt\u2019s his first year of throwing this amount of innings and this amount of starts, but it\u2019s cool for him to go into an offseason knowing he completed a season and, even though he was on an innings limit, that he pitched through September.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns said he wanted to make 30 starts, but also wanted to be cautious with the groin injury. Burns said his arm feels good and he\u2019s excited to go into the offseason knowing he can pitch an entire season and approach 2027 with even loftier goals.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019m) going for another All-Star, Cy Young,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI just want to help the team out as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
This month the Reds used lefty Brandon Williamson in a piggyback role with Burns. Williamson, who started the season in the rotation and then spent most of the season on the IL with left shoulder fatigue, will fill Burns\u2019 spot in the rotation, starting Tuesday in Atlanta against the Braves and in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
Since returning from the IL, Williamson is 2-1 with a 4.60 ERA and a win in his one start and three relief appearances, most recently pitching two innings in relief against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Reds selected right-hander Carson Spiers from Triple-A Louisville to fill Burns\u2019 roster spot and designated outfielder TJ Friedl for assignment. Spiers had Tommy John surgery last year and was 0-1 with a 3.54 ERA in four starts with Louisville before his call-up.<\/p>\n
Friedl, 31, was optioned to Louisville after Friday\u2019s game against the Chicago Cubs. The team\u2019s Opening Day center fielder and leadoff man had a dramatic drop-off in production this season, hitting just .172\/.255\/.255 in 91 games.<\/p>\n
Friedl on the deeper meaning of his painted cleats<\/p>\n
C. Trent Rosecrans<\/p>\n
The leadoff spot was an issue for the Reds most of the season. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz was the team\u2019s best leadoff hitter, but he\u2019s also the team\u2019s best hitter. Francona said he prefers De La Cruz to hit elsewhere in the lineup, but didn\u2019t have a better option.<\/p>\n
A total of 10 different Reds leadoff hitters hit just .224\/.309\/.367 this season, even with De La Cruz hitting .249\/.342\/.450 in 53 starts as the leadoff man. Friedl\u2019s 35 leadoff starts were the second most on the team behind De La Cruz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns\u2019 second full season in professional baseball officially ended on Sunday when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2319,21850,363,99],"class_list":["post-854609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}