Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds announced this morning that they were sending left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson on a rehab assignment. He will be heading to Tennessee tonight where he’ll join the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts at their brand new ballpark.
A week before Christmas the Reds and Ferguson agreed to a free agent deal to bring in the lefty on a 1-year deal for $4,500,000. He was coming off of a good season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners where he had a 3.58 ERA (117 ERA+, which is ERA after being adjusted for parks played in and in which anything over 100 is above-average) in 65.1 innings spread out over 70 games played.
Spring training did not go well for Caleb Ferguson with his new team. He only pitched in two games before finding himself injured. His last outing came on March 7th before he injured his oblique. He was not officially placed on the injury list until March 25th but that’s just because of how the rules work as they relate to the length of time guys have to be out before they can return to the active roster.
Ferguson has been working his way back with Cincinnati and last week he threw a simulated game appearance while the team was in Tampa Bay to get things really moving in the right direction. He came through his work last week just fine and now he’s going to the minor leagues to take that next step.
The Reds bullpen has been outstanding without him so far, with just the last guy out of the bullpen running into some issues through the first month of the regular season. Getting back a healthy Caleb Ferguson should just strengthen what has already been the strongest part of the team that currently leads the National League Central division by a game and a half and has 5th best record in Major League Baseball.