The Reds selected the contract of right-hander Tejay Antone on Thursday, bringing back a pitcher whose career has been reshaped by repeated elbow surgeries. The club also activated Pierce Johnson from the bereavement list, optioned Chase Petty and placed Emilio Pagán on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain.
The move was first reported by C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic before the official announcement, and it gives Cincinnati another arm at a moment when the bullpen needs one. Pagán said he expects to miss about four to eight weeks and said he thought his season was over because of how much pain he was in, leaving the Reds likely to lean on Tony Santillan and Graham Ashcraft in save situations while he is sidelined.
Antone’s return comes after a brutal run of injuries that pushed him off the roster after the 2024 season and back onto a minor league deal for 2026. He had Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer in 2017, had another in August 2021, missed the 2022 season while rehabbing, and then needed another major elbow operation early in 2024 after tearing a tendon off his bone and suffering a ligament tear.
He made a few minor league appearances in August and September of 2025, then logged 12 Triple-A appearances this year before getting the call. In that stretch, Antone posted a 2.25 earned run average, struck out 15 of the 49 batters he faced, walked six, hit one batter and threw two wild pitches. Over the four-year span from 2022 to 2025, majors and minors combined, he threw only 36 official innings.
That is a far cry from the version of Antone the Reds once counted on. He gave Cincinnati 69 innings over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, posting a 2.48 ERA with a 32.3% strikeout rate and a 10.8% walk rate before the injuries piled up. Williamson, who went on the 15-day injured list at the end of April because of shoulder fatigue, was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man roster opening for Antone.
For Antone, the return is less a comeback than a warning shot at how narrow the margin has become. He said it himself after the latest round of surgeries: “This was my last chance.”
Nick Lodolo is listed as Friday’s starter, and the Reds will now try to get through a stretch without Pagán by mixing and matching from a bullpen that has already been forced to absorb another roster shake-up. Antone’s presence gives them a live arm and, for the first time in a long while, a chance to see whether the right-hander has anything left to finish the job he has been fighting to keep alive.