The Reds’ Rotation Has Been a Real Strength in 2025
Led by a three-headed monster of Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott, the Reds' rotation has been their key to victory this season.
Heading into play on Wednesday, the Cincinnati Reds sat at 35-33, placing them fourth in the National League Central standings and 6.5 games back of the division-leading Chicago Cubs.
To this point, the season has been a bit disappointing. But, the disappointments have really only come offensively.
Through the first 68 games of the year, the Reds’ rotation has been one of the best in all of baseball. This starting staff has kept Cincinnati afloat and has put them in a great position to be buyers at the trade deadline.
All stats were taken before play on June 11.
The Starting Rotation Leading the Way
Looking at every starting pitching staff in the MLB, the Reds’ rotation ranks seventh in ERA (3.55) and innings pitched (367.2). Obviously, a top-seven ERA is great for a starting staff, but the rotation ranking seventh in innings pitched is the number that I love to see.
In years past, Cincinnati’s bullpen has been heavily worked throughout the summer trying to bail out short starts. Well, that has not been the case this year.
One of the keys to success for any rotation is limiting the long ball. This Reds rotation, who has the challenge of playing half of their games in one of the most hitter-friendly environments in all of baseball, is doing a good enough job at keeping the ball in the park. They sit in the middle of the pack across the league, which is an improvement from where they’ve been in previous seasons.
This rotation as a whole has been great, but the individual performances are all noteworthy. Let’s take a deeper look at who is leading the way.
Horses at the Top
Coming into the year, Hunter Greene needed to prove that his great 2024 wasn’t a fluke and solidify himself as an ace in this league. He has done just that.
Through 11 starts, Greene’s 2.72 ERA (162 ERA+) is almost an exact match to his 2024 output. However, looking deeper, it is clear that Greene has taken that next step.
When comparing this season to 2024, hitters are chasing more, whiffing more, and striking out more against Greene. He’s even managed to cut his walk rate from 9.3% to 5.9% in the process.
Moreover, after leading the MLB in hit batters with 19 in just 150 innings, Greene has only hit two batters so far in 2025.
Greene is currently on the shelf and going to get a second opinion (always a good bet knowing the Reds’ medical staff) on a groin and back injury.
In the offseason, I made the bold prediction that Nick Lodolo would be an All-Star in 2025. While that prediction may or may not come true, Lodolo has been quite good in the early going.
Through 13 starts and 75.2 innings pitched, Lodolo has put up a 3.21 ERA (137 ERA+). While his strikeout numbers are actually a bit down, Lodolo’s success can be attributed to his sub-five-percent walk rate and just staying healthy.
The former first-round pick has always had the makings of a frontline starter, but staying on the field had been an issue. So far in 2025, Lodolo has been going strong both physically and statistically.
Andrew Abbott. Dawg.
Through 11 starts and just over 62 innings pitched, Andrew Abbott has posted a 1.87 ERA, including a complete game shutout of the Cleveland Guardians on June 10.
Abbott technically doesn’t qualify to be compared to other league leaders, as he had a late start to the year. But 11 starts and 62.2 innings is good enough for me, and Abbott’s 1.87 ERA over that span (235 ERA+) would be good enough for sixth in all of baseball.
The Virginia product has allowed one or fewer earned runs in nine of his 11 starts this season. I predicted that Lodolo would be an All-Star and I might be wrong about that. But Abbott, to this point in the season, certainly deserves to be in Atlanta for the Midsummer Classic.
The big keys to Abbott’s success is limiting hard contact, which he has always done, and increasing the strikeout rate. In 2024, the southpaw posted just a 19.5% strikeout rate. In 2025 that number has jumped to 27.6%, putting him well above the league average mark.
More significantly, Abbott is in the 96th percentile in all of baseball in hard-hit rate as well. That is a huge key to his game, as he is in the fourth percentile in ground-ball rate.
A pitcher with sub-30% ground-ball rate in Great American Ball Park who is also posting a sub-2.00 ERA is hard to fathom. But, when you are deploying a changeup more than 20% of the time and opponents are hitting just .125 against it, you can make it work. And that is exactly what Abbott is doing.
Stability on the Back End
In the past, the lack of consistency in who would be toeing the rubber — let alone the type of day they would have — really contributed to the poor results for the Reds as a whole. This season, however, the back end of their rotation has finally received consistency with Nick Martinez and Brady Singer.
In 13 starts and just over 75 innings pitched, Martinez is following up his great 2024 by pitching to a very solid 3.70 ERA, a number that is a bit inflated by a 4.68 ERA through the first month of the year. Since the beginning of May, Martinez has pitched to a 2.95 ERA.
Singer really battles. His 4.59 ERA across 13 starts may not be very impressive, but he has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 11 of those 13 starts. A No. 5 starter who consistently gives the Reds a chance to win is all they could ask for, and Singer is doing just that.
Across their combined 26 starts, the back-end tandem of Martinez and Singer have only failed to pitch into the 5th inning once all season. That is a number that I think any manager in baseball would take from their fourth and fifth starter, and it is a huge reason for the success of this rotation.
Final Thoughts
This rotation is good. October good, perhaps. And this rotation has serious depth as the Reds have three top-100 prospects that are MLB ready.
Top prospect Chase Burns was just promoted to Triple-A, Chase Petty has made two big-league starts this year, and Rhett Lowder had a great 2024 and is just trying to get healthy.
But, the fact of the matter is that the current crop at the major-league level has been outstanding and really doesn’t need any help. They just need to stay healthy and get Greene back in the rotation.
Like I said, they have the depth to withstand an injury, and Abbott has been sensational. But to make an October push, the Reds will need their ace.
If this rotation can keep rolling the way they have been to this point and the Reds offense can continue to pick it up, we should be looking at a trade-deadline buyer. And that is a very fun place to be for the Reds faithful.
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