Reds activate Tony Santillan

Santillan’s velocity in his second rehab outing was down about 1.5 mph on his fastball and three mph on his slider from where he was before landing on the IL with an oblique strain in late June. Still, the Reds probably won’t wait much longer to activate him.

Pagán wrapped up a minor league rehab assignment over the weekend and will regain his role as Cincinnati’s closer. The 35-year-old veteran stopper has been out since early May working his way back from a hamstring strain. He should be rostered in all fantasy leagues based on his track record and minimal in-house competition with the Reds.

The Reds could certainly use Pagán back to shore up the back-end of their bullpen with Tony Santillan hitting the injured list with an oblique strain prior to Friday’s series opener against the Pirates. The 35-year-old veteran stopper’s return to Cincinnati’s relief corps feels imminent and he should be rostered in any fantasy leagues where he somehow ended up on the waiver wire after suffering a hamstring strain back in early May.

It’s been a rough season for Santillan, who has a 5.23 ERA in 31 innings for the Reds. He had been pitching slightly better in June and had taken over the role as the primary closer with three saves in the month. It’s hard to say who may take the ninth-inning duties now because the Reds’ bullpen has been so poor, but Tejay Antone has the next highest game leverage index in June, and he also has a 0.69 ERA in 13 innings across 11 appearances this month, so maybe he’s worth the gamble.

Pagán checked out fine from a physical standpoint after facing hitters in a 25-pitch live batting practice session on Monday and will kick off a rehab assignment later this week. The 35-year-old veteran stopper has been on the shelf recovering from a left hamstring strain since early May. He’s on track to return to closing games for Cincinnati before the end of June, which would push Tony Santillan back to a setup role.

Santillan is a difficult guy to trust with his nine homers surrendered on the season and 5.10 ERA, but he has earned saves in three straight appearances and has turned in seven scoreless innings since giving up three runs in a loss on June 3. He had an easy one today, though Amed Rosario and Anthony Volpe both had sharp lineouts to center in the ninth. He will need Monday off after this, so perhaps Tejay Antone could close then.

Santillan got the call to protect a two-run lead against the heart of New York’s order and managed to work around a one-out single by Juan Soto to preserve the victory. He’s picked up the last two saves for Cincinnati and appears to be their preferred ninth-inning option with Emilio Pagán (hamstring) on the shelf.

Santillan was summoned to close out the game against the Diamondbacks with a one-run lead in the ninth. He worked a clean inning, inducing three straight groundouts to end the game with just his third save of the season to go with an underwhelming 5.67 ERA across 27 innings.

Working with a 6-3 lead in the ninth, Santillan gave up a walk and a single with one out. He then retired Sandy León, who had already replaced Chadwick Tromp behind the plate and thus couldn’t realistically been lifted for a pinch-hitter. That brought up Ronald Acuña Jr., however, and an RBI single followed. Lefty Sam Moll took over at that point and walked Michael Harris II before retiring Matt Olson on a groundout. It went as Moll’s first save and Santillan’s 11th hold. Santillan still looks like the favorite for saves in Cincinnati with Graham Ashcraft and Pierce Johnson joining Emilio Pagán on the injured list, but he just hasn’t impressed of late. Terry Francona won’t like it, but he’ll probably have to do some mixing and matching.

José Fermín started the ninth with a homer that made it a one-run game. After that came a walk to Victor Scott II, a two-out walk to Alex Burleson and a game-tying single from Jordan Walker. It’s Santillan’s third blown save, and it bodes particularly poorly for him that both Graham Ashcraft (1 2/3 scoreless) and Pierce Johnson (scoreless 10th and 11th innings and a win) did very well tonight. It may be some time before Santillan gets another save chance.