{"id":111864,"date":"2026-01-17T13:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=111864"},"modified":"2026-01-17T13:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:00:31","slug":"reds-roster-expectations-starting-pitchers-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/17\/reds-roster-expectations-starting-pitchers-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds Roster Expectations: Starting Pitchers Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amidst an offseason of trade rumors regarding Reds<\/a> ace Hunter Greene<\/a>, the rotation has remained largely the same. A few pieces here and there were changed, but the core of a proven, strong, starting rotation will once again toe the slab in Reds uniforms in 2026.<\/p>\n

With that, let\u2019s see one expectation for every member of the starting rotation, plus some other arms who can expect to fill in at some point in 2026.<\/p>\n

Hunter Greene<\/h2>\n
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What else can be said about Greene. The flamethrower broke out in 2024, putting together 150 1\/3 innings with a 2.75 ERA, and repeated that by posting a 2.76 ERA in 2025 but in just 107 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Greene has struggled with minor injuries throughout nearly every season in his career so far, but the fans would love to see a repeat of 2024. He has proven to be able to be a mid to high 2.00 ERA starter at his best, despite having to pitch in the hitter friendly Great American Ball Park.<\/p>\n

If Greene can toss around 150 to 175 innings in 2026 and produce around the same ERA, he will likely end at the top of the Cy Young Award voting.<\/p>\n

Andrew Abbott<\/h2>\n
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Sep 21, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Andrew Abbott (41) pitches against the Chicago Cubs in the first inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As promising as Greene has been as Cincinnati\u2019s<\/a> number one starter, Andrew Abbott<\/a> has solidified himself<\/a> as the team\u2019s number two starter just as impressively.<\/p>\n

The 26 year old has steadily improved year after year, breaking out fully as an All-Star in 2025 and taking over the number one starter role in Greene\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

2023: 21 GS \/ 109 1\/3 IP \/ 3.87 ERA<\/p>\n

2024: 25 GS \/ 138 IP \/ 3.72 ERA<\/p>\n

2025: 29 GS \/ 166 1\/3 IP \/ 2.87 ERA<\/p>\n

Abbott doesn\u2019t necessarily have to repeat his 2025 season, seeing as it would be quite difficult, but another season of an ERA around 3.00, and over 150 innings pitched will make him a viable number two guy once again.<\/p>\n

Nick Lodolo<\/h2>\n
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Nick Lodolo<\/a> has always shown flashes of potential, but inconsistent command and injuries continued to hurt his production. However, he put it all together in 2025, throwing a career high 156 2\/3 innings with a 3.33 ERA.<\/p>\n

In fact, Lodolo posted career highs across the board.<\/p>\n

4.9 bWAR (career high)<\/p>\n

9 Wins (tied for career high)<\/p>\n

3.33 ERA (career high)<\/p>\n

137 ERA+ (career high)<\/p>\n

3.81 FIP (career high)<\/p>\n

29 GS (career high)<\/p>\n

2 CG\/1 SO (career highs)<\/p>\n

156 SO (career high)<\/p>\n

Now, would it be great if Lodolo had another low three ERA season? Absolutely. But what fans should want is for Lodolo to simply remain healthy and consistent. The Reds rotation is a deep one, with their fourth, fifth, and even backup starters capable of handling a middle of the rotation role on other teams. If Lodolo can avoid the minor nagging injuries and throw anywhere north of 150 innings, he would be the perfect third starter.<\/p>\n

Chase Burns<\/h2>\n
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Cincinnati Reds pitcher Chase Burns (26) throws a pitch in the eighth inning of the MLB National League Wild Card Game 2 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. The Reds were eliminated from the postseason with an 8-4 loss to the reining World Series Champions La Dodgers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On paper, the promising top prospect<\/a> had a bit of a tough time in the big leagues. Chase Burns<\/a> made 13 appearances (eight starts) where he had a 4.57 ERA in 43 1\/3 innings. Despite the ERA being a little high, it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story here, as his 101 ERA+ still made him above league average, and most importantly, all the underlying stats look good.<\/p>\n

His 35.6 K% was elite as it was impressive to see his strikeout stuff translate immediately in the big leagues. He also had a 2.65 FIP, which was also elite.<\/p>\n

.218 xBA<\/p>\n

31.5 Chase%<\/p>\n

31.9 Whiff%<\/p>\n

All of these numbers, including the strikeout rate mentioned earlier, would have put him atop the league if he had qualified for the innings limit.<\/p>\n

With an expected ERA of 3.48, this is most likely where Burns will land in a full season next year. Even if eh doesn\u2019t have a sub-4 ERA in 2026, as long as he can get a full season of MLB action in the books, it should be a successful year for him as he is just 23 years old.<\/p>\n

Brady Singer<\/h2>\n
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Cincinnati Reds pitcher Brady Singer (51) throws during the first inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday, September 28, 2025 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brady Singer<\/a> will slot into the final spot in the rotation, but he is much better than your average fifth starter. Singer\u2019s forte in consistency and availability, which are two heavily coveted traits in today\u2019s high-injury era.<\/p>\n

He tossed 169 2\/3 innings across 32 starts and had a 4.03 ERA. He can certainly fall into the \u201cboring\u201d category, but the results are proven, year after year.<\/p>\n

A potential problem within his game is that he had a career high 28.4 fly ball rate, which doesn\u2019t bode well with the home run prone Great American Ball Park. However, his 40.8 Hard-Hit% was the second lowest of his career (excluding the covid shortened 2020 season) which is encouraging.<\/p>\n

Another 30 to 32 start season and win an ERA hovering around 4.00 would be more than enough for the Reds.<\/p>\n

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(Top Image Credit: Frank Bowen IV\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amidst an offseason of trade rumors regarding Reds ace Hunter Greene, the rotation has remained largely the same. A few pieces here and there were changed, but the core of a proven, strong, starting rotation will once again toe the slab in Reds uniforms in 2026. With that, let\u2019s see one expectation for every member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5447,"featured_media":112401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1071],"tags":[3795,2034,4938,124,1277,2613],"class_list":["post-111864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-mlb","tag-andrew-abbott","tag-brady-singer","tag-chase-burns","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-hunter-greene","tag-nick-lodolo"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111864"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112402,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111864\/revisions\/112402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}