Graham

Ashcraft

Ashcraft went down with soreness in his right elbow in early July, and while it’s a positive sign that he’s able to throw, the Reds won’t risk the 26-year-old picking up further damage. Ashcraft will compete for a rotation spot in 2025.

The Reds needed to free up a spot on their 40-man roster on Monday, so since Ashcraft isn’t expected to return until September anyways this made logical sense. The right-hander is dealing with soreness in his right elbow and has been shelved since early July.

Bell elaborated that a late-season return would be the best-case scenario for Ashcraft, who landed on the injured list earlier this week with right elbow soreness. It doesn’t sound like he’s facing a potential long-term absence, but he’ll be racing against the clock to make it back to Cincinnati before the season wraps up.

The 26-year-old hurler had been optioned to Triple-A Louisville on Monday, but that option has been rescinded. Ashcraft attempted to grind through his elbow tightness while with the big-league club, but alerted the team to the issue after he was optioned on Monday, which prompted a checkup and his placement on the injured list instead. He’ll be shut down from throwing for the next two weeks before being re-evaluated.

Ashcraft returns to Triple-A despite allowing one run over 4 2/3 innings in his start Sunday. The Reds are getting Nick Lodolo back Thursday to fill the open rotation spot.

This was a classic Ashcraft start with a heap of foul balls, long counts, and traffic on the bases. Fascinatingly, he’s almost completely taken his sinker out of his repertoire since reentering the Reds’ rotation two weeks ago and threw just two total on Sunday. He has never been able to take the stop forward many hoped he would because he can’t find a way to add more pitches to his repertoire. Rather, it’s just non-stop cutters and sinkers which produce laborious starts like his on Sunday.

Ashcraft threw five shutout innings, but he came out for the sixth inning and allowed a single, a walk, and a run-scoring single before being removed from the game. Nick Martinez then allowed a two-run double to bring in the other runs charged to Ashcraft. While the overall performance was solid, Ashcraft also struck out just three batters, walked two, and posted a 24 percent whiff rate and 27 percent CSW. There just isn’t much here for fantasy leagues.

Ashcraft’s struggles with keeping the ball in the yard persisted in this one as he surrendered nine hits, including a pair of homers. He was in the contest early before giving up a solo shot to Rowdy Tellez, a two-run blast to Andrew McCutchen and was charged with a couple additional runs when reliever Justin Wilson coughed up a two-run double to Jason Delay following his departure. The 26-year-old righty has been hit hard in 13 starts this season with an inflated 5.45 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and 52/22 K/BB ratio across 67 2/3 innings of work. He’s not a recommended fantasy option if the Reds elect to hand him the ball on Tuesday against the Yankees.

Ashcraft, who had a 3.00 ERA in his two starts for Louisville after being sent down earlier this month, will start against the Pirates today. The Reds weren’t wanting to bring him back quite this soon, but Nick Lodolo’s blister created a need. Ashcraft was struggling before the demotion, having posted a 5.05 ERA overall and a 6.83 ERA in his final six starts.

Ashcraft will get the call back to the majors to take the ball in place of Nick Lodolo, who landed on the injured list with a blister issue. The 26-year-old righty holds a lackluster 5.05 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 49/21 K/BB ratio across 62 1/3 innings (12 starts) this season in the big leagues.