Why Reds think they can fix Chase Burns quickly after tipping pitches vs. Red Sox

BOSTON – It didn’t take long for the Cincinnati Reds to identify the tells rookie pitcher Chase Burns was giving away that helped the Boston Red Sox knock him around for seven runs in the first inning of his second MLB start.

Chase Burns #26 of the Cincinnati Reds is taken out of the game during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on June 30, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts.

What was he doing to tip his pitches?

“I’m not going to tell you,” pitching coach Derek Johnson said.

Fine. Doesn’t matter.

Chase Burns next pitches for Reds vs. Phillies

The Reds are optimistic it can be fixed, maybe by the time Burns faces Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber in Philadelphia over the weekend.

“Hopefully,” Johnson said. “It could be a little more challenging based on what it is. But we’ll give it an old college try and find out.”

Burns faced nine batters and got only one out during an inning in which the previously struggling Red Sox hit almost everything hard. Five of the seven runs were earned.

Chase Burns tipping pitches vs. Red Sox

Catcher Tyler Stephenson said the lack of swing and miss at Burns’ plus fastball and plus slider as well as some of the takes by Red Sox hitters “definitely raised some flags, like something’s going on,” although he couldn’t tell in the moment what was tipping the pitches, he said.

Burns, who went 7-3 with a 1.77 ERA in 13 minor-league starts at three levels before last week’s debut, struck out the first five Yankees he faced and eight overall in five innings of work in that debut.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora has a reputation for being skilled at reading pitchers for tipping pitches, and that might have been a factor this week.

“He picks up things pretty well and always has,” Johnson said.

Burns, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft, is the Reds’ last line of defense with their starting depth, at least until Opening Day starter Hunter Greene returns from a groin injury in the next two or three weeks.

He got his call to the majors when veteran Wade Miley went back on the injured list with an elbow injury.

“You live and learn,” Johnson said. “He’s young, so it’s good for him in some ways.”

Burns also gets high marks for competitiveness and mental toughness.

Will Chase Burns bounce back for Reds vs. Phillies?

“Talking to him right after the game, he was fine,” Johnson said. “He thought his process was good. He kind of figured something like that was happening. He just didn’t know what it was. And neither did I.”

Breaking down the video helped. But even after identifying the problem(s) they did, Johnson and the rest of the staff can’t be certain they got it all.

“Teams find different things, and guys probably have more than one (tell),” he said. “In some ways you don’t know for sure. You try to be proactive with it. But you can’t always be. In his case, we just got him, so we didn’t know really what to look at or what to look for.”

That’s why the Reds are in the process of building an internal bio-kinetics system that can quickly identify subtle differences in mechanics, posture, hand position, etc., that could betray differences in what pitch is coming.

“We’re just not quite there yet,” Johnson said.

“It’s kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said of the process. “But it’s there. And it was pretty evident (Monday) night.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why Reds think they can fix Chase Burns quickly after tipping pitches vs. Red Sox