Cincinnati Reds outfielder and perhaps future “plays everywhere” guy Nick Senzel will begin his rehab assignment with the Triple-A Louisville Bats tonight in Iowa. Senzel is recovering from knee surgery after tearing meniscus in late May. During the last two weeks we’ve seen Senzel taking ground balls on the infield, with the Reds also talking about potentially getting him some playing time at shortstop. It seems that the plan could be to have Senzel available as an option in center, at third, at second, and possible even at shortstop depending on how the Reds want to manage their lineup and defense on a given day.
On Thursday we got some updates on some of the other injured players from manager David Bell.
Mike Moustakas
“He’s passing all of the tests. I expect him to be playing games in Triple-A. I don’t know how many it will be – at least a couple. I would say after their off day on Monday if everything keeps moving forward, that would be the plan. I don’t think it would happen before that, but for sure right after their off day.”
Nick Castellanos
Things are essentially still in wait-and-see mode with Nick Castellanos and how his wrist is healing and responding. “One little step at a time. Each day he does more and the next day it’s a little bit more sore, but that’s normal, to be expected. Nothing very new there, just have to be a little patient.”
Michael Lorenzen
“(He’s doing) Incredibly well. It’s amazing how fast he’s healed. I think he has a chance to be back way sooner than I expected. That could be a matter of days. There’s a chance by this weekend. He wouldn’t need to pitch in a rehab game. It’s either be activated or throw another bullpen session.”
When Senzel returns, I’d like to see him play 3B vs RHP and CF vs LHP. That is, until Moustakas returns. Then maybe he can platoon with Moose at 3B if he’s playing better than Suarez (not hard to do). I’d imagine they’ll ease Moustakas back in. So maybe he only plays vs righties. Suarez has had his chances. Time to give Senzel his.
Good points Klugo. Suarez has to sit if the Reds want to make the playoffs.
He is not coming out of this slump this year. They are full of 3RD baseman and should trade Suarez after the season is over.
Unless the Reds give up a high end prospect or a few other prospects, Suarez isn’t going anywhere.
A bold move would be to DFA once they have viable alternatives for 3B.
Bob believes the sunk cost fallacy so as long as he’s owed money that will not happen
Why would you trade Suarez? He is a guy that put up 49 home runs and drove in 100 runs not long ago. To trade him now would net us nothing . If you want to sit him and use him as a bench piece that’s fine. His value to us is him finding his stroke. We are not trailing The brewers because of Geno. We are trailing because of a horrible bullpen. If he finds his swing he is worth much more to us then anything we could get in a trade at this point. Getting Geno back being Geno is what Bell is trying to do. If he can accomplish that we gain much more then any prospect we can get now.
Jim,
Geno’s leading mlb in stranded runners by 20 or something. Its not even close. I’m old and I don’t have time for a thousand analytics, but Geno has a -2.3 war.
My semi-educated guess is Geno has cost them 3 games compared to an average 3B and the pen probably 4-5 atleast.
Castillo needs to be slammed too for performance not matching his talent. He leads mlb in era in June/July and yet he was one of the worst pitchers in mlb in April/May. Thats crazy.
I agree that trading Suarez now makes no sense. Benching him, at least vs RHP, does.
Pay attention to the numbers – Suarez hits RH’ers better than left. As RojoB said, holding on to Suarez is simply an example of the sunk cost fallacy with a bit of anchoring bias thrown in – why back in 2019 he hit 49 HRs. That’s two years ago. George Foster hit 52 back in the 70s. Same thing.
This season, Suarez has seen righties 3x more than lefties and is hitting under .200 vs both. In his career, Suarez, has hit lefties a little better; about 10 points better.
Guys, all good points concerning Geno but for me and looking at his career after 2019 season he was considered one of the best bargain in baseball. A pandemic shortened season, a shoulder surgery and a position switch later and he has fallen off the cliff. For the return we could get at this point versus if he finds his swing again I can’t see trading him now. When Moose and Senzel get back you can sit him and it may take some pressure off him which could help him. I really feel like it’s in his head at this point. Trading him now considering the return is just not the right course of action at this time.
@IndyRedMan, The stranded runners isn’t a very useful stat, it’s like RBI’s, sure it gives some insight, but it’s more about opportunities. If the Reds batted Suarez 8th or 9th that number would be way down. Having said that,
I’m in for Moustakes to take over 3B, and Suarez to move to a minor platoon role / pinch hitter.
Senzel I’d love to be our utility guy.
Barrero to be our SS
Farmer also a utility guy
Great thoughts Klugo,
And yes, Geno is hurting this team, despite the strong overall offense. -2.3 WAR stat doesn’t lie. With Senzel or Moose at 3B, Reds would likely be 4 or so games better over a 162 game season. Even Lopez or Schrock would be an improvement.
Winning teams have a guy like Suarez on the bench. I think SF or SD or LA would snap him up in a heartbeat if we were to DFA him.
So, let’s be a winning team. Gino as 26th man is not a bad thing while he figures it out. The last few years, these same things were said about Votto. Anybody want to DFA Votto now? Or trade him and pay a big part of his salary so that he can win MVP in LA?
As Ted Lasso would say, be a goldfish…
Right now any options will be better than Suarez. It’s sad to say that, because he’s done so much in the past. But the reds have decent chance to make the playoffs this year and they should not take it for granted.
No Antone update?
Nick Krall said a couple of days ago that Sims was 10 days to 2 weeks behind Lorenzen with Antone about another week behind Sims. Of course, those are all projections based on if everything continues as now and there are no setbacks.
Sitting Suarez for the rest of the year when Senzel and Moose comes back makes all the sense in the world. However, he has 3yr/$34M left on his deal. It’s still cheap enough to not give up fully. Let him continue to work this offseason and see what he comes back as next year. If we get to the ASB next year and he’s still hitting (or lack thereof) like this, then release him. That contract isn’t as terrible or untenable as people have made it out to be. Obviously, it is at what he is doing currently, but he doesn’t have to be a superstar again to be worth the contract.
Need Moose back….Suarez continues to struggle big time. I expect we won’t see Antone or Sims back for at least a couple weeks OTW we wouldn’t have acquired 3 relievers at the deadline. Lorenzen I’m guessing next week. They won’t rush back Senzel as he likely won’t start anyways but rather platoon and be a hybrid player.
I really don’t like the idea of turning Senzel into another Farmer. If he has the potential for which he was drafted, move him to a permanent position and start him everyday. If he remains fragile or doesn’t develop – dump him. Suarez – dump him. Moose if he can’t stay healthy – dump him. Shogo, an idea I really liked at the time, isn’t adjusting to the league – dump him. Finding partners may be an issue with the exception of Suarez. Someone would take him – after all he hit 49 HRs in 2019 and a good manager/hitting coach may be able to straighten him out. That just doesn’t seem to be in the Reds’ coaches abilities.
I think Shogo is definitely in the plans for next year, especially with the DH. IF you dump him (and Castellanos walks, which he will) the you are left with an OF of Winker, Naquin and Aquino. That is brutal. I don’t think you can even count on Senzel at this point. He is made of glass.
Question about Suarez maybe Doug or somebody else could answer. About the timeline of when Suarez hurt his shoulder in his swimming pool resulting in surgery. Did that injury come before his struggles of the last two years or was his big seasons after/during the time of his surgery.
Suarez hurt his shoulder before the 2020 season. Hasn’t been the same since.
Suárez hurt his shoulder in January 2020. His OPS in 2019 was .930 with OPS+ of 129 and wRC+ of 133. So, no real sign of issues ahead of the shoulder injury.
The majority of Senzel’s injuries have come playing OF. Move the kid to third. Imagine an infield of Senzel (3B), Barrera (SS), India (2B), Votto (1B) and Stephenson (C). Mix in Moose and Farmer and that is one heck of an infield. Not hating on Suarez, but there is no place for an aging, power hitter with an average under 200. But the Reds make decisions on money and service time so we won’t see it.
I really don’t want to imagine that infield.India leads all 2b in errors’ and Stephenson is borderline awful defensively.
Errors and range are often inversely correlated. The advanced metrics all seem to think that amount of value India adds via range far surpasses any value subtracted due to his errors, enough so to make him an above average defensive 2B. I’ll take a 24 year old rangy with room to grow 2B over a sure-handed statue any day. He still has a good amount of time to work on reducing the errors before father time starts eating away at the other skills that make him such a promising player.
This team has a lot of holes, but I don’t think a few extra errors made by a 24 year old rookie forced to play between Votto and Suarez for much of the season, makes the list.
Essentially all of India’s issues this year involve misplays to his right side. He’s a huge outlier in the regard. This feels like something positioning and some extra offseason work can take care of. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part, but I won’t be surprised if his sophomore season includes a dramatic drop in errors all while maintaining, if not improving, the other skills that are already at above average levels.
If you’re envisioning an Eugenio free infield, with Moose on the bench, I’d have India as 3B, with Senzel as my 2B. I think Senzel is a better athlete than India, and if he we’re to get hurt, it’s an easier spot to fill defensively.
Based on the various comments by the Reds, it looks like Moose is projected to have a shorter rehab than Senzel. We could be within a week to 10 days of push coming to shove via Moose/ Suárez at 3B
Moose and Senzel nice when have both back.
Both hurt so Much .
Not relying on them though.
Could be useful in Roles.
Nick C love to have back and rely on him.
I like the Naquin/Aquino combo in center field and would be hesitant to insert Senzel back into that mix except occasionally….and even then he would be taking Shogo’s at-bats (man, Shogo literally has nowhere to play). I think Senzel’s value will be as a supersub, but that can only happen if Geno gets demoted.
It’s painfully obvious that Shogo and Geno have no business starting when Senzel and Moose are healthy. Something has to give.
You don’t take a guy 2nd overall and not give him a shot to start everyday. Maybe Senzel will turn into a supersub. Who knows? But I think he’s still in the spot in his career where they need to give him a shot to be an All Star like they drafted him to be. Other than a few injuries, he has not shown he isn’t capable of that trajectory.
Yup, well said.
Absolutely. Just like India , they need to let him play every day. So many people on here wanted to send Indi to AAA when he was struggling in the spring and put Senzel at second. These guys are drafted high for a reason. For some reason they think Aquino is awesome because of 1 month. The guy cant hit a breaking g ball and pitchers will start pitching to him like they do Suarez and then that will give people something else to complain about. Put Swnzel in the lineup every day.
They did not just let India play. Moose got hurt. He was ready when opportunity struck. The same thing that Senzel needs to do, the same thing as Aquino. The same thing as Guetereriz (sp, sorry) or any number of bullpen applicants.
Do the job when you have the chance. I agree that Gino needs to sit, good thing that Moose is coming back as that is an easier management move than benching Gino for rookie.
It is a hard game. Guys were calling for Castillo’s head earlier this year. Looks like a different player now. Maybe these guys who run the team know that for which we criticize. So fun to see this Votto run for MVP!
If the Reds are really serious about winning this year, I mean REALLY SERIOUS, then once Senzel and Moose com back, Suarez will be a bench player, with very few spot starts, the remainder of the year.
They will not, cannot really, trade Suarez. They’ll have to revisit his role next year. But for this year, he needs to be benched in favor of better players, when they return.
ANYTHING short of that benching, and the Reds are simply NOT SERIOUS about winning this year, and they are letting Suarez’ contract dictate his playing time.
I think we finish on wining note it miss playoffs
I hope we do something today this trade deadline we won’t get story since sensel and moose be back soon. Also, experts don’t see story be traded today. Saurez struggle since last year in a 60 games season with .202 this year more games he at .171 he had 15 hrs last year n this year he has 19 so not much difference
getting a real look at who thinks themselves buyers and who thinks they are sellers. The fact that DET and LAA are not dealing may have hurt the reds. I think Nick wants one more big move before 4 oclock. Injured players returning will also improve the roster.
Suarez is not the sole reason the Reds are trailing the Brewers and we all know that.Bob telling Bell to play him is part of the problem as is Bob not getting any pen help until 100 games are played along with Bell’s lineups and his tendency to want to play everybody on the roster.The Brewers have 3 really good borderline #1 starters an almost unhittable set-up guy and of course Hader.They went out and got Adames,Telez and now Escobar to help the offense and Council is a really good manager.The pen help we got and guys returning makes us better and helps Bell because he has to do less and even if he over manages he is doing it with better players.We may not catch the Brewers any way but there is no way we do if Eugenio continues to play every day.The Reds can’t hide him in the lineup unless he hits 8th or 9th and I am not sure that will even do it.I feel for him but he is hurting the team in a way I never even thought was possible. Can’t wait to get all of our injured guys back just to see how good we could become.Go Reds.
Don’t look now,but Farmer is in top half of NL in hitting and fielding. I would rather see REDS concentrate on a LEFTY than a 2 month Short Stop!
Amen
Just saw where the Brewers are making another deal; this time for Tigers lefty reliever Daniel Norris,
no way i would throw Senzel in with the Wolves right away. strictly pinch runner, pinch hitter at least for the first few weeks.
i don’t know why but i still think Suarez is going to get hot before this season is done. i still don’t quite understand Moose’s injury. Achilles tendonitis? plantar fasciitis? kind of strange injury so i would treat him with kid gloves as well
C. Trent tweets that the Reds might not be done on the trade front. So, stay tuned…
https://twitter.com/ctrent/status/1421153353883701248
We may get to see Baez again right away….Mets and Cubs apparently close to a deal.
I don’t trade Suarez because after two poor seasons in a row you get nothing in return. I believe the off-season ‘19-‘20 shoulder injury and surgery led to some poor mechanics issues. I would send him to one of the private hitting gurus, ala Justin Turner, to rework things. Senzel needs to go with him as all the injuries he has had has messed him up too. I’d leave Senzel in AAA the rest of the season (he has had no career big league experience to say he deserves a big league spot) put Suarez on the bench against righties and platoon him with Moose.
I wouldn’t do anything rash with Suarez this season. Just rest him and occasionally use him in noncrucial situations. Then in spring training, if things go well, and he’s expendable at third base, trade him for pitching.