is back in the Cincinnati bullpen, as the Reds reinstated him from the 15-day injured list this afternoon. (They also welcomed back and from the IL.) However, Daz will not immediately return to his traditional closer role. Manager Terry Francona told reporters ( Mark Sheldon of MLB.com) that Daz wont step right back into the ninth inning. The Reds relied upon in save situations while Daz was shelved by a hamstring strain. Pagn has J.R. Smith Jersey four of the teams five saves, while picked up the other. Santillan has been Franconas top setup man. and have gotten a handful of leverage appearances as well. Pagn has had a solid first three weeks. He has worked 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out five against one walk. Hes 4-4 in save chances and picked up a hold on Opening Day. Pagn is in the second season of a two-year, $16MM free agent deal. The first season didnt work out as the Reds had hoped. The righty allowed a 4.50 earned run average over 38 innings. His strikeout and walk numbers were very good, but Pagns longstanding i sue keeping the ball in the park continued. He also lost a few weeks to triceps tightne s and spent two months on the IL with a lat strain. Daz has been Cincinnatis closer for most of his three-year MLB career. He earned his first save chances late in his rookie year, a deserved nod after his 1.84 ERA with 83 punchouts acro s 63 2/3 innings. Daz earned an All-Star appearance and saved 37 games during his second season. He walked a tightrope for most of last year, however. While Daz succe sfully locked down 28 of 32 save chances, he did so with a career-worst 3.99 ERA. His strikeout rate which had sat north of 30% in each of his first two seasons plummeted to a pedestrian 22.7% mark. Daz has never had good command, making the drop in whiffs all the more concerning. His stuff has also backed up. The righty averaged 93.9 MPH on his fastball last season. Thats down nearly two ticks from his 95.7 MPH mark as a rookie and a 94.5 MPH average in 2023. Between those somewhat alarming numbers and the season-opening IL stint, its sensible for the Reds to stick with Pagn and Santillan as their top late-game arms while having Daz work in somewhat lower-leverage spots in the early going. Jordan Bell Jersey