KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Add another month or so to the Cincinnati Reds’ projected timeline for getting one of their most important starting pitchers back from the injured list — left-hander Nick Lodolo is now expected back sometime in August at the earliest following the latest MRI Wednesday on his left leg.
Lodolo was told Wednesday he’ll have at least another two weeks in his walking boot, manager David Bell said. That’s when his next MRI and checkup are scheduled for the stress reaction in the leg.
Once he’s cleared to remove the boot, “it would be four to six weeks from that point before he would be back out there,” Bell said.
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That’s sometime during the first half of August in a best-case scenario — about a month later than originally hoped when the stress reaction was first diagnosed in mid-May.
“I feel bad for him. That’s a long time to be in a boot,” said Bell, who described Wednesday’s assessment of the healing process as “progressing well.”
Lodolo, one of the Big Three young starters the Reds banked on coming off their 2022 rookie seasons, made seven starts before going on the IL — giving up four earned runs in 17 innings over his first three and 20 in 17 ⅓ over his next four .
It’s hard to overstate how much a healthy Lodolo would mean to a surging Reds team that had won seven of nine games entering play Wednesday despite the worst rotation ERA (5.93) in the National League — including 7.32 during the eight-game streak without a quality start they took into the series finale against the Royals in Kansas City.
Graham Ashcraft, another of the Big Three starters, also is on the IL with a bruised calf but is expected back during the Atlanta Braves series next weekend at home — the club anticipating the two-week mental doing as much good for the struggling right- hander as the time to heal the calf.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds starter Nick Lodolo’s IL return pushed back to August.