The Cincinnati Reds injured list is pretty crowded these days, particularly on the offensive side of things. Joey Votto is nursing a broken thumb, Nick Senzel is dealing with some soreness in his knee, Mike Moustakas is dealing with a heel issue, and Aristides Aquino is recovering from having his hamate bone removed. Some guys are seemingly closer to returning than others, but we’ve got some updates on all of them.
Joey Votto
The Cincinnati Reds first baseman broke his thumb when he was hit by a pitch in the hand a three weeks ago. David Bell noted that on Tuesday he was back in Cincinnati having what I’ll call a rehab session that included him swinging and taking ground balls.
Mike Moustakas
After being only available off of the bench for nearly a week, the Reds placed Mike Moustakas on the injured list on the 20th with a heel contusion. When asked if he would be eligible to return on Friday, manager David Bell said that no, he won’t be.
“By the end of the week he hopes to be out of the boot and doing some more running,” said Bell. “He’s running in the water right now. Hopefully by the end of the week he’s running outside. When we get off the road next week I think we’ll have a much better idea where he is.”
Aristides Aquino
On April 16th Aristides Aquino was placed on the injured list after breaking his hamate bone. He would have surgery to have it removed (this is standard protocol for this injury). He was transferred to the 60-day injured list a week-and-a-half later. With that move it means he wouldn’t be eligible to return to the active roster until mid-June. But he is getting close to heading out to a rehab stint with the Triple-A Louisville Bats.
“He’s going to be heading to Louisville in the next week or so,” Bell said. “He’s going to need some at-bats. I’d expect him to be playing there the first couple of weeks June. We’ll see where he is at that point.”
Position players can be on a rehab assignment for 20 days before they must return to their regular assignment with the big league club or placed back on the injured list.
Nick Senzel
There wasn’t much of a detailed update on Nick Senzel. The Reds center fielder was placed on the injured list on May 21st with left knee inflammation.
“Nick’s still dealing with the knee soreness,” said Bell. “No real update or timetable there. We’re hoping to know more in the next day or two.”
Update: 4:40pm
The Reds announced that Senzel would undergo knee surgery on Friday and would miss an estimated 4-6 weeks.
Senzel’s situation is most worrying to me. They are a week in and don’t seem to have a clue. This could well mean there is swelling which blocks the medical staff from being able to complete a full evaluation. Or, they are trying treatment(s) and not getting the hoped for results. Or both.
I sense a bit of the same flavor to Moose’s situation but not nearly to the same degree.
I believe the enquirer mentioned Moose was reported as having a very small tear in the plantar fascia – I.e plantar fasciitis.
Not something that heals quickly and usually resultsin surgery for athletes. Don’t count on Moose making long stretches of appearances this year.
Senzel’s situation is truly mind boggling. He’s been out a week and a half, and they don’t know the problem. I think it’s safe to say he’s injury prone. Any more prolonged injuries in the next year or two and we can call him a bust pick
This is the first injury he’s had in the last two years that has him on the injured list.
I had not heard the plantar fascia news and was wondering if they were building up to the “A”(chilles) word.
That is a tad selective, Doug. Senzel started 2019 on the AAA injured list, and then played his last game in 2019 on September 7 with a torn labrum or other shoulder injury. The Reds just didn’t bother putting him on the IL. He played 23 games in 2020, missing 27 games due apparently to COVID, en route to his .604 OPS in 2020.
Then he hurt his shoulder again in about the 4th inning of the opener this year, and really hasn’t appeared completely healthy all season. He has a -0.4 bWAR this year, and an OPS+ of 70. We can agree that his true talent is better than that, so the injuries must be nagging him.
Senzel is “injury-prone” as sure as water is wet. It isn’t a moral flaw, and to a certain extent he is unlucky. I am sure that Senzel wants to play more, but he hasn’t been able to. The lack of playing time and production is going to cost him a ton of money in arbitration.
Calling someone injury prone who has been on the injured list for a week in the last two seasons seems like an interesting point to fit a narrative.
Now, is 2020 weird because of everything that happened? Sure. A lack of 100 games could have kept him from being injured. And getting COVID took another 30 games away from him potentially getting injured. But the guy has actually been “injured” and missing games for like two weeks in the last two seasons. To me, it’s people trying to fit the narrative from the past that they believe to be true. It’s the “Homer Bailey isn’t a good pitcher” argument being made in 2013 because he was really bad in the first few years of his career. I just don’t think it fits right now. And yeah, I also understand 95 out of 100 people disagree with me. That’s fine.
And now he’s having knee surgery. I still think it’s a bit much to say he’s injury prone, but I’ll also accept everyone telling me I’m wrong.
I agree Senzel is starting to approach bust status, and his injuries do seem to be frequent. He plays so many positions he was just moving awkwardly and seemed to hurt himself at 3rd base. It looks more severe than what they are leading us to believe.
“Any more prolonged injuries in the next year or two and we can call him a bust pick”
I’m going to go out on a limb and call him a bust now. And last year when he only played 25 games and hit under .200. He’ll be 26 next month. He always got hurt in the minors too. Its not like he rakes when he plays anyway.
If Tyler Naquin can maintain his current OPS+/ wRC+ rankings to the end of the season, doesn’t he go into 2022 as the Reds preferred CF?
And yet if you asked people who follow the Cleveland team about him this time in 2019 or last year, there is a good chance you’d have heard the terms injury prone and bust playing largely in their descriptions of him.
Another guy who has had trouble staying on the field prior to this year is Jesse Winker; but, he seems to have finally put that behind him (knock on wood).
For Naquin it seems to be coming together in his age 30 season, Winker his age 27 season. The Reds need to play the guys who do the best job; but, I think it is not time to give up yet on Senzel.
On the other hand, I might be more tempted to move him if there was another team who seemed willing to overpay on him based on his production to date at the MLB level.
Come on Doug in the Baseball dictionary where Injury prone is listed there is a photo on Nick Senzel
Senzel is injury prone….how many times he is on IR is irrelevant, what matters is how many games you play…. He has not played a full season since 2017
2018 – 44 games
– vertigo – missed 4 weeks
– June season ending surgery torn tendon finger
– off season elbow surgery
2019 – 104 games
– started season with sprained ankle in spring training, didn’t make his Reds debut until May
– season ending shoulder surgery
2020 – 23 games
– sprained left finger
– groin injury
– COVID issues
2021 – TBD, probably won’t play over 100
– Heel issue in Colorado, missed multiple games
– shoulder issue early in season missed multiple games
– knee surgery
I feel for him….not like he does it on purpose, but that is 4 years, not 1 year,…but 4 straight years of injury after injury
At least in my humble opinion and every article that I read on him, he is labeled as INJURY PRONE
Bust? Hardly, but I do believe the Reds have done the young man no favors by moving him around a bit too much almost straight from day one and he got precious little time in the minor leagues to learn some of the nuances of the professional game..
Agree Big Ed, it does seem selective considering the games missed even if not technically on the IL. Injury-prone, unlucky or whatever you want to call it, Senzel hasn’t been able to stay on the field and in games, consistently since being called up. And when he’s been on the field he’s produced mediocre numbers, likely due to not being able to get any consistency going. I hope we can eventually see him on the field for extended stretches because I believe he’ll hit if he can.
And what about Shogo??
He was activated three weeks ago?
Oh, just checking.
Hahah fair point though Klugo unless you were being sarcastic.
The man has had like 5 ABs since returning… seems Bell forgot he was their best hitter last year in September
Just about what we all figured after last weeks IL of Moose and Senzel.Seems like Bell and others know and are saying the same things unlike last week.Moose’s injury if indeed he has a tear can be a long term injury if they want it to heal on its own.Don’t be surprised if we aren’t in the same place 2 weeks from now and we may see Joey before we see Moose.
Ken Rosenthal wrote a piece earlier this month on the rash of injuries. It’s up across baseball. The Mets could field a decent 9 player team with their guys on the IL and the Braves are now getting hit hard. The Brewers GM was quoted in the Rosenthal piece as saying teams are taking decisions out of the players hand more and more and being cautiously well.
Senzel has missed some time and its easy to say injury prone or he is a bust or when he does play he doesn’t produce like a first round pick.Fair comments for sure but IMO he has more baseball tools then anybody on the roster.He has been asked to move from position to position,hit lead off and as low as 7th and was and has been platooned.Some may disagree but we have a roster full of DH’s,guys that can’t run,guys that can only play one position at best,guys with weak throwing arms and some that are below average defensively.Senzel is not one of those players.I would argue against trading him before every outfielder except Wink and the same for the infielders except Joey who has earned the right to retire a Red.Guy is still young and makes peanuts and is one of few that actually uses the whole field when hitting.
Senzel needs surgery and will miss 4-6 weeks.
Joe West just threw out Gallegos for having pine tar on his hat. Lol poor cardinals
Now they left Gallegos in the game but took his hat.
I feel bad for Senzel. But, it sounds like a relatively minor procedure and not major surgery as they are saying he’s back in 4-6 weeks.
That means India should start every game at 2b now so lets see how he does knowing he SHOULD play every day,even after an 0-4 or a 2-13 series. This is where Nick Krall and DB have to be on the same page and playing your #1 pick every day and not rotating with Max Schrock and Blandino.
Moose is in a boot. Senzel is having surgery.
It’s India’s time to see what he can do for the next 6 weeks.
David Bell always talks about the value of information but he is always hiding it from the fans and city that largely pays his salary. Joey and Aquino have legit injuries but Moose, Senzel and Lorenzen are just happy talk and confusion much like the outlook for the team. Nice pitching yesterday and Farmer kudos for his timely hitting but I don’t see anything has changed relative to 1st year Bell:
(The Reds were 43-51 and 8.5 games out on July 9, 2019).
[So, the post game presser started after yet another loss:]
“We’re always going to look to improve,” Bell replied. “Right now, it’s clear we’re not where we need to be in every area of the game. We’re working hard to get better. It’s very simple for me. I love the team we have. I love the guys we have. But we all know we have to get better. That’s our focus every day.”
[Asked further about possible trades or lineup changes:]
“I don’t want anyone else in our clubhouse. We love the team that we have. We have the talent. We have the ability. We just have to get better and that’s my responsibility. That’s great. That’s exactly where I want to be. We have to get better, we know that. We’re doing what it’s going to take. It’s going to show up. We can’t wait for that to happen.”
The Reds did make some big moves relative to pitching by trading for Trevor Bauer, activating Alex Wood, and picking up Kevin Gausman from waivers. Although these 3 all became very valuable pitchers within a year or so, the Reds didn’t benefit and finished 75-87, and 16 games back.)
Green shoots, dead flowers, and weeds abound in every garden. The heat of early July is the time to clear it out if the next season is to be made abundant.
I said at beginning of the year that injuries would play a big part of this season and it has. Every team is losing players. When moose had his injury I had commented on the game thread that if he has plantar fasciitis he would be out awhile and the way he is limping around, it looks like it. I feel for Senzel. He knows he has high expectations being placed on his shoulders but just cant get out of the way of nagging injuries. Most unfortunate.
I know I’m probably a minority on here but the two I’m looking forward to the most coming back are Votto and Aquino. Votto was playing pretty good especially on defense before going down (despite the offensive numbers not being great). Our outfield has long been too crowded. Because of arm strength both Akiyama and Winker are basically left fielders only (unless you train them for 1B). One or the other needs to be traded. I think we all know which one will be staying. When that happens we will have four good outfielders in Winker, Naquin, Catellanos, and Aquino (two lefties/two righties). Aquino can be the backup CF. As far as all around defensive talent (tracking, speed, arm) he’s probably the best we’ve got unless you want to include Lorenzen. Speaking of Lorenzen the fact he’s coming back means we only need four outfielders as he can play when needed as the fifth.
Agree, can’t wait to see Aquino and Joey again.
And offensively, I’d rather see Aquino coming off the bench than I would Max Schrock.
Thumbs up 🙂
I want to hear about Lorenzen, what is wrong with him and when will he be back?
Doug I’m not so worried about Senzel talent,but we have to many fringe Outfielders. Let’s take 1 and trade to METS for pitching not Minor Leaguers! Krall an rest of MANAGEMENT have to be more aggressive like Tampa Bay!
Well, I’m not yet willing to give up on the Reds this year…but it doesn’t look promising going forward. If we could have kept our starting line-up on the field I think it would be pretty impressive, even if some weren’t performing to their average. Clearly, this year at least, a big part of our offense is Winker and Castellanos…but I’m afraid Castellano won’t be staying. That means building a future team around Winker and hopefully Stephenson, offensively. Don’t know about India’s offensive ability long term. Don’t know about Garcia’s offense long-term. Suarez needs some sports psychology help. Shogo doesn’t seem to figure in (not sure why he isn’t getting ABs). Aquino is literally hit or miss. Wish we could, but can’t count of Senzel. Votto on his way out. Moose on his way out. Pitching looks promising with Lodolo and Greene coming up, Mahle maturing, and hopefully getting Gray and Castillo back to form.
P. S. Looking at Reds top 30 prospects…only 4 in AAA and 3 of those are pitchers…and only 4 in AA, and 3 of those are pitchers. Of the two position players, Garcia show promise (altho overmatched in majors last year). TJ Friedl seems to be progressing downward as he advances.