Layne Somsen didn’t wait long to detour his career with the Cincinnati Reds.
The 26-year-old rookie was absolutely shelled in just his second major league appearance.
Reds’ manager Bryan Price decided to throw Somsen into a one-run game in the fifth inning with the Reds’ trailing.
51 pitches later, Somsen’s meaningful outing came to a merciful end after he surrendered five earned runs and two homers.
The day for Somsen could’ve been worse. He opened the fifth inning with back-to-back singles and walked another batter before he got the final out of the inning with the bases loaded.
Somsen couldn’t escape the next inning. Five of the six batters he faced scored. He walked two batters and gave up a single in addition to the two bombs he surrendered.
Somsen is just the latest reliever on a carousel of ineffective pitchers the Reds’ trot out to the mound in what has become one of the sorriest excuses for a bullpen in major league history.
The Reds’ bullpen currently has the sixth-highest ERA in major league history. Four of those other horrendous bullpens pitched in either 1930 or 1936. The other one pitched in 1950.
Baseball hasn’t seen a bullpen with an ERA as pathetic as the Reds’ laughable 6.44 mark since a 2007 Tampa Bay team that registered a 6.16 ERA.
The closest of the worst bullpens in the National League to the Reds’ current 6.44 ERA is the 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks‘ bullpen. That bad bullpen ranks 31st-worst all-time with a 5.74 ERA.
The Reds will likely see bullpen improvement at some point in the season once starting pitchers on the disabled list force some of the team’s current starters to move to the bullpen.
But until that happens, the Reds and Price will be forced to rely on the products of ineffective pitcher development and cast-off relievers unwanted by other major league teams for very good reasons.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
The post Layne Somsen is latest bullpen dud for Cincinnati Reds appeared first on OutsidePitchMLB.