Zach Buchanan

zbuchanan@enquirer.com

CHICAGO – The Cincinnati Reds began spring training this year excited about their pitching depth at or near the major-league level. Instead, they’ve stumbled along to the worst ERA in the majors at 5.51.

There were various reasons behind such a disappointing team performance. Injuries crippled the staff early, forcing the Reds to use career minor-leaguers in the rotation early. A bullpen constructed mostly out of wishful thinking reached new lows of failure in the first month of the season.

Now the Reds have the closest thing to the rotation they envisioned early in the year, but top pitching prospects Cody Reed, Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb have endured rough patches and failed to pitch well with any consistency.

On Monday, all of that fell at the feet of first-year pitching coach Mark Riggins. While those with the team can say only positive things about Riggins' performance in the position, the organization decided to remove him from the role before the team’s Fourth of July game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

“We haven’t been able to pitch up to the expectations of some of our young pitching,” manager Bryan Price said. “There’s been a ton of challenges, no doubt. But we expect more. We’re going to do everything we can in the second half of the season to make sure that these young guys get a lot closer to being able to play winning baseball than they have in the first half. It’s a very difficult day and a difficult decision.”

Walt Jocketty, the team’s president of baseball operations who will transition to an advisory role after this season, said no other changes were considered before deciding to remove Riggins. The team had considered making the move at the All-Star Break, but figured that would just be “just prolonging it.”

Bullpen coach Mack Jenkins will take over as pitching coach, with Triple-A pitching coach Ted Power filling Jenkins' old role. With Power elevated to the majors, player development staffers will pick up the slack in Triple-A.

Riggins spent the last five years in the organization, the first four as minor-league pitching coordinator. He has a long history with Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty, serving as the pitching coach for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1995 when Jocketty was general manager there. The organization would like him to stick around in some capacity, but expect Riggins to take some time to decide on his future.

Jenkins has been on the big-league staff the last five seasons, previously serving as bullpen coach and assistant pitching coach. Power has been the pitching coach in Triple-A for the last 11 seasons. He’s expected to join the team before Tuesday’s game.

“That’s what professional sports is,” Jenkins said. “That’s part of it. Things like that, it’s not the first time. No matter what sport they’re in, coaches get fired if the team doesn’t perform, whether they are at fault or not. It’s the way it is.”

After the news was announced, no one with the Reds had a negative thing to say about the work Riggins had done. In fact, everyone seemed to want to claim a bit of the blame for themselves.

The Reds have had flashes of promise from prospects like Reed, Lamb and Finnegan, but have yet to see any of them sustain that success for more than a few starts at a time. Cincinnati pitchers lead the majors in walks and home runs, and are on pace to set a new big-league record for the latter.

“For this to fall on Mark, his removal is not representative of the job that he did,” Price said. “The fact that I’m here with a pitching background and Mack’s here with a pitching background, this is not an independent job he did by himself. We all had input.”

Jocketty said the front office is culpable too. A string of injuries in spring training left the Reds thin when it came to starting pitching, forcing the organization to use players in the majors before they were ready. The only player in the bullpen with any track record of success was anointed closer J.J. Hoover, who thus far has been demoted once from that role and twice to the minors in the midst of his worst season as a professional.

The Reds made some late-spring additions to shore things up, but those did not pan out well. Right-hander Alfredo Simon was never the durable, reliable rotation arm the team expected when they signed him in March. He rejoined the organization in worse shape than they expected, was bumped to the bullpen after terrible results as a starter and is now on the disabled list. Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf has not been the disaster Simon has, but hasn’t blown the doors off either with a 4.31 ERA.

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The organization apparently tried to make more additions than that.

“We tried to acquire a veteran pitcher or two to stabilize the staff and we weren’t successful with that,” Jocketty said. “Part of the blame rests with us in the front office. We haven’t been able to find the right pieces to add.”

The pitchers feel some culpability too. With the organization diving head-first into a rebuild, the Reds have been able to give many pitchers more slack than just about any other club could offer. Very few Reds pitchers have taken advantage of it.

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Riggins may have visited the mound as often as his favorite lunch spot, but he couldn’t throw any pitches when he was there.

“It can kind of be a wakeup call that will help us realize we need to do better,” Ohlendorf said. “This isn’t going to be given to us, the ability to play in the Major Leagues. We need to take advantage of the opportunity. Mark had to bear the brunt of it but as pitchers, if we struggle, we’re going to be next.”

The Reds hope a different voice will lead to different results. They like Jenkins’ big-league experience, and think Power’s familiarity with the young pitchers who have come up through Triple-A could be a bonus. Of course, that familiarity was a big selling point when they promoted Riggins to the role last offseason.

What’s certain is that the status quo is not acceptable.

“I’ve got a lot of optimism about some of the young arms, but we can’t continue to watch this type of performance,” Price said. “It has to get better.”