The Reds announced today that right-hander Zach McCambley has been recalled from Triple-A Louisville. He’ll take the roster spot of righty Tony Santillan, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain, retroactive to June 23rd. It’s unclear how much time the Reds expect Santillan to miss.
Santillan, 29, has been a key part of the Cincinnati bullpen for a while. Over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he made 109 appearances, allowing 2.60 earned runs per nine. He walked 9% of batters faced while striking out opponents at a 28.6% clip. He earned seven saves and 37 holds.
His results haven’t been as strong this year, as he has a 5.23 ERA through 31 innings. His strikeout rate has dropped all the way down to 20.9% while his walk rate has ticked up slightly to 10.4%. Despite the diminished results, it’s a blow for the Reds. They lost both Emilio Pagán and Graham Ashcraft to the IL last month, depriving them of their closer and one of their top setup arms.
Those injuries pushed Santillan into a more prominent position in the relief corps. He recorded saves in three straight appearances from June 13th to 21st. Now the Reds are losing yet another arm from their late-game mix. That will mean that guys like Brock Burke, Pierce Johnson, Sam Moll and Tejay Antone will have to handle the leverage work for the time being.
Ashcraft isn’t going to be back soon. The Reds placed him directly onto the 6o-day IL at the end of May with a UCL sprain. Pagán shouldn’t be too far off though. A hamstring strain put him on the 15-day IL in early May. He was sent to Triple-A Louisville for a rehab assignment yesterday and was going to start last night’s contest but it was rained out. Once Mother Nature allows him to get a few appearances in, he should be good to rejoin the big league club. He had a 6.43 ERA before hitting the IL and will obviously be looking to get that number down.
The Reds have been cold lately and have fallen to 37-42, which puts them 5.5 games out of a playoff spot. The trade deadline is a little over a month away, so they will need to gain some ground in over to avoid a summer selloff. Doing that with a banged-up bullpen is going to be a challenge.
Photo courtesy of Sam Greene, Imagn Images
