Why Chase Burns Could Become Greatest Cincinnati Reds Pitcher Ever
· Yahoo Sports
The Cincinnati Reds have room for improvement, but it's hard for a starting pitcher to be better than Chase Burns has been so far. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder is 5-1 with a 1.87 ERA and 1.00 WHIP over nine starts.
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Burns ranks ninth in baseball in ERA and 25th in WHIP, which differs from last year. The right-hander went 0-3 with a 4.57 ERA over 13 outings (eight starts) after getting called up to the big leagues for the first time that June.
While it's too early to make long-term proclamations, Burns is showing why the Reds drafted him No. 2 overall in 2024. If the Tennessee native continues to dominate, he'll enter all-time territory in Cincinnati lore.
Chase Burns Showing Hall of Fame PotentialCincinnati Reds pitcher Chase Burns (26). © Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAYBurns must produce multiple elite seasons to rival Cincinnati's legendary hurlers, but he's at least proving what he's capable of so far. Even if he logs around a 3.00 ERA over the next few years, he'll be on par with Tom Seaver, for example.
Seaver went 75-46 with a 3.18 ERA over six years with the Reds from 1977 to 1982. The 12-time All-Star also pitched for the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox, becoming a Hall of Fame inductee in 1982.
Another pitcher revered in Cincinnati history is Eppa Rixey, who played for the club from 1921 to 1933. The southpaw went 179-148 with a 3.33 ERA and is in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
A more recent example is right-hander Johnny Cueto, who went 92-63 with a 3.21 ERA with the Reds from 2008 to 2015. The native Dominican also earned an All-Star nod in 2014 and led the NL with 242 strikeouts that year.
Burns will likely hit some bumps in the road, but the fact that he's performed this well in what's scheduled to be his first full big-league season suggests that he could be at least as good as those players were. He already has six quality starts and has allowed more than two runs in an outing just once this year. He most recently tossed a six-inning shutout in Thursday's 15-1 win over the Washington Nationals.
Up next for Cincinnati is a road trip against the Cleveland Guardians and Philadelphia Phillies before returning home to face the St. Louis Cardinals. After that, it'll hit the road again to face the New York Mets.
Friday's game against the Guardians starts at 7:10 p.m. ET. Left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbot will start for the Reds against right-hander Tanner Bibee.