Brandon Williamson has joined the Cincinnati Reds and will make his major league debut Tuesday in Denver vs. the Colorado Rockies.
The team is still reportedly deciding whether to start the Martin County West graduate or deploy him following an opener.
Williamson is already on Cincinnati’s 40-man roster. The Reds selected his contract last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He’s spent the 2023 campaign on optional assignment to Triple-A Louisville. He joined the taxi squad earlier today and will formally get his first major league call tomorrow. Cincinnati will need to make a 26-man roster move to accommodate his promotion.
Williamson has had two straight good outings with Louisville.
On Thursday he went 5.2 innings vs. Columbus, allowing one run on six hits, walking three and striking out four. Louisville led 6-1 when he left the game.
In that game, he matched his career high by throwing 98 pitches, 61 for strikes. He’s thrown 98 pitches three times.
On May 5 in Omaha, he equaled a season high by going six innings, allowing three runs on three hits, walking one and recording a season-high seven strikeouts. He had a stretch where he retired nine consecutive batters.
For the season, Williamson has a 2-4 record with an earned run average of 6.62. In 22.1 innings he has allowed 34 runs (29 earned) on 44 hits, walked 20, hit two batters and struck out 27.
The 6-foot-6 Williamson began his professional career in 2019 after the Seattle Mariners selected him in the second round out of TCU. He had played two seasons at North Iowa Area Community College prior to that.
Williamson got the call that he was going to the majors at least temporarily on Sunday.
“The call was pretty exciting, I actually missed three calls and I had to call back,” Williamson told reds.com. “It was special. It was Mother’s Day. I was hanging out with my wife (Eivey) and daughter and making supper. It was a pretty fun phone call.”
However, the call from Louisville Manager Pat Kelly was one he didn’t receive right away.
“I didn’t even notice,” Williamson said. “It was probably like an hour later. He left me two voice mails. One was nice and the other was like answer your phone! I sort of knew. Usually PK doesn’t call me three times in a row. So by the time I called him back I was like ‘what’s up?’ and said ‘you should probably answer your phone every once in a while!”
Cincinnati has an open spot in its starting rotation because Williamson’s TCU roommate, Nick Lodolo, is expected to be out for a month due to a calf injury.
The Reds have a 18-22 record and are in fourth place in the National League Central, five games behind first-place Milwaukee and one ahead of fifth-place St. Louis.
Cincinnati is playing the first of a three-game series with the Rockies tonight.
After an off day Thursday, the Reds are home for a seven-game home stand, three vs. the Yankees over the weekend and then four with the Cardinals next Monday-Thursday. Then it’s back on the road for three vs. the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Memorial Day weekend.
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