It's not just the everyday guys. The Diamondbacks have been piecing their rotation together with rookies for weeks now, and the Reds are dealing with a much bigger blow: staff ace Hunter Greene isn't walking back onto a major-league mound anytime soon.
Greene's second Tommy John surgery this month wipes out the rest of his 2026 and all of 2027, which says plenty about why Cincinnati's rotation has leaned so hard on Brady Singer and Rhett Lowder to turn things around. The bright spot keeping the Reds relevant at all is Elly De La Cruz, who's been playing at an MVP level even as the win total lags behind him.
Arizona's answer to its own rotation crunch has been throwing rookies like Bratt, Kohl Drake and Jose Cabrera into the fire after injuries gutted the projected staff — Zac Gallen, Corbin Burnes, Ryne Nelson and Blake Walston are all still on the shelf. Bratt has flashed real stuff in flashes, including a 9-strikeout outing against San Diego, but the command has come and gone, and Sunday's Reds lineup will test which version shows up.
Arizona took the series opener 9-0, so there's recent evidence either offense can go quiet or get run off the mound depending on the day. With both rotations thin and both lineups missing pieces, this one's shaping up as much about who's healthy enough to show up as who's actually better.