The Cincinnati Reds made several roster moves on Tuesday afternoon before the start of their series against the Chicago Cubs. The team called up one of their top prospects, Tyler Stephenson, and relief pitcher José De León. Both players were on the taxi squad for this road trip and already with the team. To make room on the active roster, the Reds designated Matt Davidson for assignment and placed reliever Nate Jones on the 3-day paternity list.
The big question is how much playing time will Tyler Stephenson get? There are already two catchers on the roster with Tucker Barnhart and Curt Casali, and the pitchers seem to work well with them behind the plate. Neither has done much hitting for average, though Casali has walked and hit for power this year in his limited action (.226/.379/.547). Stephenson has only played in one game with the Reds this year, but he made that game count. In his three plate appearances he went 2-2 with a walk, home run, two runs batted in, and he scored two runs.
Cincinnati’s offense could use help in any way they can get it. Perhaps the 24-year-old Stephenson can help with that. Whether that’s getting some time behind the plate, or whether that’s getting action as the designated hitter – or a fine mix of both – it’s worth trying it out and seeing what happens.
For Matt Davidson, he may long hold some cult-like hero status for what he did on August 21st against the St. Louis Cardinals when he came off of the bench to pinch hit for Josh VanMeter with the bases loaded of a 2-0 game and crushed a grand slam in his first at-bat in 10 days (which was also a home run) to lead the team to a win. But since that grand slam, Davidson was 1-23 with a single, two walks and eight strikeouts.
Nick Senzel could return for the St. Louis series
Dick Williams, Reds President of Baseball Operations told the local media this afternoon that outfielder Nick Senzel could possibly return as early as Friday – which marks the start of a series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Senzel has not played since August 14th and has been on the injured list ever since. Last week he began to work out at Prasco Park with the players at the alternate site in the player pool.
This is the 5th time the GM has had to DFA players to stop Bell from continually sending these .150 or less hitters up to the plate in key situations or starting them; previous such players were Van Meter, Colon, Ervin and Jankowski. Let’s hope Stephenson gets a decent opportunity.
How bout they DFA Bell too – he’s one of the main issues . Awful excuse for MLB manager. Clueless .
I like it. Keep cycling through guys until one sticks.
Why not?
Also, Reds front office is going to look like dopes if Stephenson and Aquino crush it down the stretch.
If he ever gives Aquino a chance to play. He sure as heck gave the rest of those retreads a chance.
Best of luck to Matt Davidson
The Reds FO and Bell don’t understand baseball players need to play everyday. Joey Votto said the same thing. He needs repetition and continuity to succeed and felt bad for the bench guys and pinch hitters
If Joey votto can’t do it, how can Matt Davidson .
Davidson joins a long list of AAAA guys who are being asked to perform at the MLB level in ultra specialized small niche roles while they played everyday in AAA.
Reds FO and Bell guilty of being fantasy football managers. Build a core roster of everyday players. The everyday 4 supplemented by a Handedness platoon of AAAA is why this offense has no rhythm or identity.
Get senzel back and play an everyday 7. Rotate the DH and give Stephenson and Garcia regular time.
https://blogredmachine.com/2020/09/03/cincinnati-reds-mismanagement-alternate-site-costly/?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email
This is an article by Luke Graham a few days ago from Fansided about the alternate site and how it has been handled you might want to read.
Too little, Too late…