Reds Spring Training Notes - Spencer Steer, Rhett Lowder still banged up

Notes from the first smatterings of Reds baseball from Goodyear.

It has been 136 days since the Cincinnati Reds wrapped their 2024 season with a 3-0 win over the Chicago Cubs, a game that came just one day after Rhett Lowder put the finishing touches on his first professional season.

Lowder, Cincinnati’s 1st round pick from the 2023 MLB Draft, fired 5.0 IP of scoreless ball in an eventual 3-0 loss to Chicago on that day. In the four and a half months since then, he’s seen his name rocket up most every Top 100 overall prospect list while also finding it on the Opening Day depth chart projections for the Reds by most everyone out there.

The latter, though, might have to hit pause.

As the pitchers and catchers (and some position players) reported to camp in Goodyear, Arizona yesterday, word began to circle that Lowder is dealing with a little bit of soreness in that prized right arm of his. As MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed on Bluesky, it’s some elbow soreness that has so far not included any ‘structural issues,’ but that’s clearly concerning given that it’s been over four months since he last threw a big league pitch.

The reality is that if everyone stays mostly healthy there are too many qualified starting pitchers for the Reds to carry everyone all year. Hunter Greene, Nick Martinez, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Rhett Lowder, Brady Singer, and Wade Miley (eventually) all plan to get starts this year, while Chase Petty looms behind them on the cusp at AAA. Several someones aren’t going to make the cut come Opening Day, while the hope is that some combination of five of them will all still be healthy and firing come September, too.

So, there almost needs to be some slow-play with starters these days, and it appears Lowder getting off to a somewhat slower trajectory in 2025 is already being baked into the cards.

In a similar vein, it appears that Spencer Steer is still dealing with some shoulder soreness that he dealt with down the stretch in 2024, too. Over on Twitter, which you should really ditch for Bluesky, Gordon Wittenmyer of The Enquirer relayed that Steer will likely be limited to DH duties early in the spring as he works his way back to being a defender, too.

Is that alarming? No, it’s not. We know Spencer’s bat will feature prominently in the 2025 lineup. Is it a wrench thrown in the discovery phase, though? Yeah, it sure is.

Given that Steer can, in theory, feature into the mix at LF, 3B, 2B, and 1B, and given that a handful of the other players in the mix this spring can play multiple positions, too, the more time to get a look at how they work together in every combination would be ideal for manager Terry Francona as he learns the group and their tendencies, and Steer missing out on several weeks of that makes it a bit more difficult for evaluation purposes. Still, as ‘problems’ go it’s a seemingly minor one, and the hope is that we look back in a month and forget it was ever even a thing.

In other news, the Reds relayed that both Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand were in camp early and - dare I say - in the best shape of their lives.

As C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic noted, CES rolled into camp in such good shape that Terry Francona wants to see him get more reps at 3B this spring before pigeon-holing him into the 1B/DH only group.

The Reds will see their pitchers and catchers go through their first workouts later today, which means there will be numerous videos circulating of that sweet, sweet sound of baseballs smacking leather gloves. Frankly, I can’t wait.