Cincinnati Reds Young Starter To Miss Significant Time

After getting off to a brutal start in his sophomore season, perhaps the Cincinnati Reds now have an answer as to why their former first-round pick Nick Lodolo has been struggling. He's been diagnosed with a fairly severe calf injury and is likely out for a month.

David Bell said it will probably be a minimum of four weeks before Nick Lodolo (calf) returns.

They’ll have TJ Friedl (oblique) get some work in today. How he feels will shape whether or not he goes on the IL.

— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) May 14, 2023

Manager David Bell said that the 25-year-old will just need to rest it for a while before getting back on a mound.

Bell: "He’ll be in a boot for a week to take all pressure off it. He was trying to pitch through it. The good thing is we got all the information yesterday that we needed. He’ll take a step back and be back healthy."

— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) May 14, 2023

"He’ll be in a boot for a week to take all pressure off it. He was trying to pitch through it. The good thing is we got all the information yesterday that we needed. He’ll take a step back and be back healthy."

Lodolo had been off to a 6.29 ERA in his first seven starts of the season, surrendering a league-leading 10 home runs, and a major league-leading seven hit batters. He's still racking up the whiffs, at 12.3 K/9, but he obviously needs to get his calf healthy before he can properly have his full repertoire working. 

Last season, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft had a tremendous rookie year, posting a 3.66 ERA (ERA+ of 123 — 23% better than the average pitcher) while striking out 11.4 batters per nine. 

Photo: Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK