Anthony DeSclafani is finally set to make his 2016 debut for the Cincinnati Reds tonight against the Oakland A’s. The start comes after the 26-year-old suffered an oblique strain that waylaid him for more than two months.
DeSclafani was one of the few bright spots last year for a Reds’ team that suffered 98 losses. He finished his rookie campaign with a 4.05 ERA in 184.2 innings.
Remarkably, this year’s Reds’ team is on a pace to lose even more games than last year — a franchise record of 103 games.
DeSclafani won’t be the only catalyst to help the Reds avoid the most losses by a Reds’ team in franchise history (101 by the 1982 Reds). His return does mark the glimpse of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel littered with losses for the entire Reds’ organization and fan base.
The Reds are off to their worst first-half of a season since 1934. The team’s abysmal .367 winning percentage is fifth-worst since 1913 in franchise history ahead of only the 1934, 1931, 1927 and 1921 Reds’ teams.
The return of a healthy DeSclafani fleshes out a Reds’ rotation that could prevent further embarrassment for one of the sorriest teams in baseball. With a rotation anchored by DeSclafani, Dan Straily, Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb, the Reds might just be able to stave off clusters of losses until Homer Bailey returns to the rotation and promising rookies Robert Stephenson and Cody Reed join the big league club.
The expected return of injured former starters Raisel Iglesias and Michael Lorenzen by the end of June will also help the Reds stop the bleeding for a bullpen that continues to trudge towards being one of the historically worst of all-time in baseball history.
DeSclafani’s return won’t be quite as dramatic for the Reds as the much-longer awaited return of Bailey, but it will most definitely represent a start for a lost franchise to begin the process of turning itself around.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow hm on Twitter and Facebook.
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