The Cincinnati Reds have made four roster moves today prior to the game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Outfielder TJ Friedl has been activated from the injured list. Outfielder Jake Fraley has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist contusion and that move is retroactive to Thursday. The team also optioned right-handed reliever Joel Kuhnel to Triple-A and called up Kevin Herget from Triple-A.
TJ Friedl is coming back from a hamstring strain that he suffered at the end of May. He last played on May 30th against the Boston Red Sox. The 27-year-old outfielder has been one of the best hitters for Cincinnati this season, posting a .326/.377/.496 line in 42 games played. He’s also stolen six bases without being caught this year.
While the Reds are getting one outfielder back, they’re losing another. Jake Fraley is hitting the injured list today with a wrist injury that was likely caused when he was hit by a pitch on June 6th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fraley pinch ran the next day, but he hasn’t played since. He seemed to be coming out of his slump at the time of the injury, having gone 7-17 with two walks in the four games prior to his pinch running appearance.
Joel Kuhnel was called up yesterday from Triple-A Louisville and he got into the game last night against the Cardinals. He finished the 7th inning and then pitched the 8th inning, giving up a hit and a walk in 1.1 shutout innings. Now he’s heading back to the minor leagues.
Kevin Herget is on his way back to joining the big league club. After a disastrous game on June 1st where he allowed six runs in an inning of work he rebounded with 2.0 shutout innings against Milwaukee on the 3rd. But he was optioned back to Triple-A after that. He had been scheduled to join the Louisville rotation and make a start last night, but the Reds held him back in anticipation that they may need to call him up and that’s just what happened. In 12 games this year with the Reds he’s posted a 4.79 ERA with six walks and 11 strikeouts in 20.2 innings.
Glad to have you back, TJ.
Is it me or have the Reds been bitten pretty hard by the injury bug this year? Especially in the pitching staff. They started the year with a pitching rotation of Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Overton and Luis Cessa. Lodolo, Ashcraft and Overton are hurt. Cessa was DFA and picked up by Colorado where he failed and was demoted to the minors. So 80% of the starting pitchers the Reds started with this year are not playing for Cincy now. I don’t think that is good….and likely one of the big reasons we are seeing the musical chairs game being played between the Reds and Bats pitching staffs currently.
When I was looking into injury prevalence I didn’t look into every team, but of the 5 or 6 I checked, the Reds had the most. Most pitchers, too, but not outliers by percentage. Injuries to pitchers this year are very frequent throughout MLB.
Just checked this yesterday. The Reds are not alone in pitchers on the IL
Currently their are 232 players on the MLB Injured list. Of those 166 are pitchers.
Hopkins and Barrero waiting on Myers & Votto so they can move to Louisville and actually play every day
Todays lineup is potent. If Benson gets in a grove it can be downright scary.
Agree, and put Stevenson at C and CES at DH makes it even better.
Yes sir. Include Fraley in the outfield, and that would be optimal lined up I believe.
Just way too many injuries this year. Fraley was hot too.
Took Abbott over 4.5 Ks today. Making decent coin on them
Over or under on 9 runs?
Idk on that one?
What do folks think about Stephenson? He has more at bats as a DH than as a catcher this year. Is that due to the Reds being cautious with him coming off of injury or do they not think he’s good enough to be a “full-time” catcher? Or is carrying 2 veteran catchers more about helping the young pitchers develop rather than TS? Just wondering if 3 catchers on the roster is the plan going forward.
Should have been “not good enough to be the full-time catcher”.
I think its all that.
3 catchers, including 2 respected veterans was part help the young pitching and part CYA after the catching debacle that was 2022 and uncertainty re: TS health
The 3 headed catcher will remain until at least the trade dead line. My perfect outcome would be Casali “retires” and becomes Reds bullpen catcher and part of DJ staff and Reds pay him everything his contract would max out as. His catching ERA is good. His contribution to the team chemistry is important.
His game calling skills are his biggest asset.
True about the vet catchers and the young pitchers, but remember that the idea going into the spring training was that Stephenson would be DH and play first. With the emergence of Steer and CES though, along with Casali’s woeful batting average, Stephenson is back behind the plate.
I doubt Casali would bow out with the team playing exciting baseball. Maile, Barrero, and Fairchild to the Guardians for Quantrill, who isn’t having a good year but is a reliable starter who can go deep into a game and is controllable thru ’25. And Paredes and Ramos to the Yankees for Krook (a journeyman left-handed starter-turned-reliever) and Rortvedt (a left-handed hitting catcher who’s hitting .340 at AAA but is blocked with the Yanks, who got him from the Twins when they got Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa). Maybe not this season, but moving forward Rortvedt could be Stephenson’s backup.
I think it is too early to tell considering the extent and location of his injury. His form might be on the uptick. He has a couple of HR in the past week and sent one to the wall last night.