Reds Send Amir Garrett To Louisvile

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The Reds are sending you ace Amir Garrett back to Louisville and recalling reliever Barrett Astin from Louisville.

Garrett goes to the minor leagues, arguably, the Reds best starter in 2017 but there is strategy involved.  Garrett, 3-2 with a 4.25 ERA and quality starts in five of six outings, leads the Reds in innings with 36, an average over six per start.  That would put him on pace to pitch 198 innings this year.  The Reds feel that is too big a jump from the 144 2/3 he pitched last season.

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“We’ve got two days off,” Bryan Price said. “We’ve got the day off after the Yankees series on Wednesday and then again on the following Monday, so we have the ability to skip a starter. That being said, Amir’s been our most effective starter to this point. But the thing we’ve had to keep our mind’s eye on is his overall innings for the year. He pitched 145 last year in the minor leagues, so we’re not going to take him to 200, to 190, 200, 210, 220. We knew, and we talked to all of our young pitchers when spring training ended about the possibilities and probabilities of some of these guys flipping out so we could control their innings.”

The Reds recalled Astin to give them an extra bullpen arm while Garrett rests.

The Reds want the other starters to get the benefit of an extra day.

“Garrett pitches (in Louisville), but it’s really more for like an inning or two innings, just to cut him back,” Price said “If we can cut him back a couple of times this year in this type of a scenario – and then every now and again, perhaps after the All-Star Break, maybe we skip him a start if the innings are an issue – we can do that. But we can’t do that all through the year because that means that all the other guys are pitching on regular rest. They never get the extra day. With Bronson, Feldman, Rookie Davis, Adleman, you’re not going to want to do that. You don’t want these guys to have to pitch every fifth day and then not get that one extra day when we have a day off. It’s something we might be able to do in the second half. Certainly we can manage September a lot easier with the extra bodies. We had to make a smart decision here, and I think we did. He’ll be back in relative short order.”