When it rains, it pours. Earlier this month the Reds lost closer Emilio Pagan to an injured hamstring. Earlier this week Cincinnati lost Graham Ashcraft to a torn UCL in his elbow. And now Pierce Johnson is on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. That’s three key relievers for the Reds that have found themselves injured within the last four weeks, and that doesn’t even count Connor Phillips who performed so poorly during the month that he was optioned back to the minor leagues.
Cincinnati made the move to place Johnson on the injured list prior to Saturday’s game against the New York Mets. The move was retroactive to May 27th, which means he would be eligible to return June 11th. To replace him in the bullpen they have called up right-handed reliever Lyon Richardson from Triple-A Louisville. He was not on the 40-man roster, so in order to add him to the big league roster the Reds designated right-handed pitcher Kyle Nicolas, who had also been in Triple-A with the Bats, for assignment.
Starting with Johnson, he had been a big part of the bullpen this season, posting a 3.27 ERA in 22.0 innings for the Reds. Not only had he been doing a good job of keeping runs off of the board that would be charged to him, he entered the game this season with 12 runners on base that were the responsibility for the pitchers before him and only allowed one of those guys to score. He was saving his teammates ERA all year long. Now the club will be without him for at least the next two-ish weeks.
Lyon Richardson will join the Reds for the 4th straight season. In 2023 he only pitched in four games and he was a starter back then. The next year he only made one appearance for Cincinnati. But in 2025 he played a decent role in the bullpen for the team, making 34 appearances throughout the year and posting a 4.54 ERA.
That ERA doesn’t quite tell the story of his season, though. In his first 20 appearances he had an ERA of 1.85. Over the next 13 games his ERA was 8.03 and wound up getting him optioned back to Triple-A. He was recalled for one game in September and gave up three runs in an inning of work and then was optioned back to the minors. After the season he was designated for assignment and cleared waivers and then outrighted to the minor leagues.
For all of the 2026 season he had been in Triple-A with Louisville. He’s thrown 30.1 innings in 18 games, has given up two home runs and 24 hits to go along with 14 walks and 34 strikeouts. His ERA is 4.75. Much like his time with the Reds last year, that doesn’t quite tell the story of his season, though.
In his first 12 games of the season he had an ERA of 0.98 in 18.1 innings pitched while giving up eight hits, walking six, and striking out 19 batters. Since May 9th he’s thrown 12.0 innings and allowed 16 hits, eight walks, and given up 14 earned runs while striking out 15 batters. That’s an ERA of 10.50 in the last three weeks.
Richardson is out of options, so the team is going to have to let him sink or swim because sending him back to the minor leagues is going to mean putting him on waivers. His strikeout rate is up from his time in Triple-A last year, but so is his walk rate. He still gets a lot of grounders, but his rate there is down slightly compared to his time in both Triple-A and MLB compared to last year.
You can see all of Lyon Richardson’s stats here.
As for Kyle Nicolas, he’ll now get to test the waiver wire for other teams. After pitching for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic he seemed to cost himself a chance at making the Reds out of spring training. He spent the first week-and-a-half of the season in Triple-A where he allowed one run in 4.1 innings before being called up to Cincinnati. For three weeks he was with the Reds bullpen, but two poor games led to him allowing seven earned runs in 7.1 innings before he headed back to Louisville. He then gave up eight earned runs in his first 3.0 innings for the Bats before not allowing any earned runs over what turned out to be his final 8.1 innings before being designated for assignment.
Between his two stops this year Nicolas simply struggled to throw strikes. He walked 30 of the 124 hitters he faced this season in just 23.0 innings.
You can see the career stats for Kyle Nicolas here.