The Cincinnati Reds have placed outfielder Henry Ramos on the 10-day injured list with a right hip strain. Taking his place on the roster will be outfielder Will Benson.
The start of the 2023 season did not go well for Will Benson. After a hot start in spring training he cooled down a bit, but made the team out of Arizona. Then he went ice cold when the season began. In eight games he went 1-20 with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Cincinnati optioned him to the minor leagues at that point.
Things didn’t get much better in Louisville immediately. In the first two weeks in Louisville, Benson went 4-38 with 21 strikeouts – though he did walk 11 times. Still, he wasn’t hitting, hitting for any power, and he wasn’t making any contact. Everything started to change when the calendar flipped over to the month of May. Since May 1st, Benson has gone 14-54 with three doubles, two triples, three home runs, 21 walks, eight steals, and just 13 strikeouts in 79 plate appearances. He’s making contact at a good rate, drawing walks at an incredibly high rate, and the power has started to show up, too. He’s hit .259/.468/.556 during the month. You’d like to see a higher average than that, but everything else has been going about as well as you could hope for.
Henry Ramos was getting a solid amount of playing time in the absence of TJ Friedl. Whether some of or all of that playing time goes to Benson or not will be determined moving forward, but he’s been playing a lot better of late in nearly all aspects of the game.
As for Ramos, he had kind of been the opposite of Will Benson. He got out to a hot start with the Reds after his call up from Triple-A. In the final week of April he went 9-22 (.409) with four walks and just two strikeouts. But since the calendar flipped to May he’s struggled. Ramos had been 6-40 (.150) during the month with two doubles, six walks, and 13 strikeouts in 47 plate appearances for Cincinnati.
Where is Joey Votto?
Attempting to recuperate as age forty approaches.
60 Day IL.
I am not sure he plays again (maybe a little at the end to say goodby)
Lawn bowling.
Kinda funny that some on here say Barrero is better defensively than McClain. Let’s see, McClain has had maybe ten or less plays and hasn’t made an error. Pretty small sample size.
Wrong thread @Beaufort. And that opinion is based on scouting/reporting, not sample size.
Until Friedl gets back, CF is a toss up between Fairchild, Benson, and Barrero.
Fairchild will get all lefties. I wonder how playing time will break down between Benson and Barrero vs righties?
Friedl is eligible tomorrow??? I think.
He was in uniform and on the steps cheering his teammates on yesterday and reports earlier in the week were he had no residual symptoms. Hopefully he is hitting 2nd and in CF tomorrow.
India at DH today so doesnt look like any lingering layoff for him and McLain at SS again.
India
Friedl
McLain
Fraley is a nice 1-4 against righties.
What I would love to hear each year. . .
Where do the Reds stand in how many player-days they have on IL, or DL, or whatever it is these days? I specify player-days, as in if 1 player misses 5 days, that’s 5 player-days. If 2 players do that, that’s 10 player-days missed.
I would like to hear this stat because I don’t care just how many players are on the IL but also I want to hear how many days we have missed.
Grab Aaron Hicks from yanks in 7 days, see they can flip him at deadline. he may feel relieved to get outa the bronx and play well somewhere else.
T.J. Hopkins with Louisville is wondering why not call me up? I’m batting .311 with an OPS of .947
Is he on the 40 man roster?
If not, and he called up, may have to DFA someone.
Just a guess.
I’m a Hopkins fan myself. He’ll be a solid backup, or even a starter, for the big club one day. He’ll get called up eventually, probably later in the season. But he’s not on the 40-man roster yet, so to call him up would mean someone would have to be dropped from that roster. Ramos and Fairchild would have to be DFA’d for Hopkins to get the call, I suppose.
My guess is that Benson will show he is not worthwhile and will be DFA’d. Just a hunch.
That’s all the Reds need,..to bring Benson back up. We desperately need another weak stick on the team. We have some of the best players in the minors and refuse to bring them up until the season is over and lost. That Meyers sure is a must have (at .198),..and Fairchild (at .212),..and Barrero,..and all the other K kings. Yep. Let’s leave De La Cruz, Marte, Encarnanciaon-Strand, Abbott, and on and on and all the rest in the Minors,..where they belong. I’m tickled to get Benson back. We need more like him and Myers. And we should send McLain back down, as he can actually hit a baseball. We don’t need him. Amazing!!!
Barrero you complain? Just a few months ago you all had him as one the best in the minors and need to bring him up to save this team. No way he should stay in the minors another day you all said. The lesson is that player development takes a lot longer than a video game.
Huh? Looks to me like Myers et, al. are the ones that need a little player development. And it also looks to me like they can send Barrero back down just as easily as they can bring him up. No law against doing that. How about keeping players in the Majors or sending them back down to the Minors depending on how they perform? You ever consider that? You know,..like other teams do. Might should be considered at least. Just sayin’.
But they need an outfielder right now. The guys who are tearing it up in the minors are infielders. We all hope to see some of them this season.
Barrero and McLain can play the OF if needed. What we need is talented hitters.
I agree, they definitely have to do something about Fairchild and Myers. Barrero is not doing so poorly at the plate, however; true, not real good either. Ramos is hitting .150 in May. Looks like the Reds found a reason to get rid of him. Benson is hitting .259 at AAA in May (after a horrible April). Let’s see if he’s able to continue that in the show.
Myers has a lengthy track record as a decent MLB player. .253 BA, .327 OBP, some power–30 homers one year. Decent, not great. He’s off to a bad start, but it certainly seems possible that he can fix what’s wrong .
Would have been the perfect time to bring up Tj Hopkins, send down Ramos who is 31 and not a long term player. Then should have India’s sit out a few games and bring up EDC while releasing Cassali. Then as a final move release Meyer and bring up CES.
Tj Hopkins takes over RF as starter. Farley plays there occasionally. EDC takes over at SS. India, McClain, Senzel rotate thru the 2nd base, 3rd base and a little DH. CES scones up and plays 1st and DH along with Steer. Have your catchers catch rather than roll them thru DH. Lastly bring up Abbott this year so he gets at least 6-8 starts in majors.
Now the rotation is Greene, ( got to get a 2 seamer or change up to be dominant), Ashcroft, Lodolo, Abbott and one of Lively, Weaver, Williamson or experienced vet from trade over summer. Not a bad rotation and if that vet can be a 2 or 3 pitcher even better.
For next year decide who is best at SS and make them you SS for next 5 plus years. Do the same for 2nd and 3rd. Could either move the loser in D out to the outfield to challenge for starting in RF or cf air just have that player be a super sub. This then allows you to look at trading Steer or Senzel for another 4 or 5 pitcher and suddenly next year we look pretty strong as a young and upcoming team. Because of all the young and relatively cheap players it also allows to spend some bucks in the back 2-3 set up men in the bullpen.