Photo: Doug Gray
Tonight the Cincinnati Reds are back at home and will be hosting Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels. They’ll have a new reliever on the team to hopefully help them pick up a few more wins this weekend. Right-handed reliever Kyle Nicolas has been called up from Triple-A Louisville and the team has optioned righty Jose Franco to Louisville.
Franco made the team at the end of spring training when Nick Lodolo wound up on the injured list with a blister and caused a chain reaction that opened up a spot in the Reds bullpen. Franco, a starting pitcher, filled in early on in a multi-inning role. He pitched in three games, throwing 1.2, 2.0, and 2.0 innings for Cincinnati in the first two weeks of the season. His first two outings saw him make a shutout appearance. Last night in Miami he gave up two earned runs in his 2.0 innings.
Kyle Nicolas may have cost himself a chance at making the opening day roster by playing in the World Baseball Classic for Team Italy. Of course when he made the decision to play in the WBC he was not in the Reds organization, he was a Pirate. But early in the spring Cincinnati and Pittsburgh made a trade that brought Nicolas into the organization and sent Tyler Callihan to the Pirates.
He didn’t pitch much in the World Baseball Classic and by the time he got into Reds camp he just wasn’t ready in time and he was sent to Triple-A to begin the year. Nicolas pitched in four games with the Bats, throwing 4.1 innings and giving up one run on three hits, two walks, and he struck out seven of the 17 batters.
The hard throwing Nicolas (he has topped out at 100.9 MPH in his career) has pitched in parts of the previous three seasons in MLB with the Pirates. His debut season in 2023 saw him give up seven runs in just 5.1 innings, but he’s been solid in the 82 games he’s thrown in 2024 and 2025. During those two years he’s posted an ERA of 4.27, which was good for a 99 ERA+ or basically league average once adjusted for the parks he’s pitched in (100 would be league average, so he’s the tiniest bit below-average here). That’s come along with 49 walks and 89 strikeouts. That walk rate is a little higher than you would typically like it to be, but it did get better in 2025 versus 2024 (but was still a tad higher than you want it to be).
You can see the career stats for Kyle Nicolas here.