The Cincinnati Reds have placed infielder Matt McLain on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain. They also announced that outfielder Stuart Fairchild has been activated from the 7-day concussion list.
Losing Matt McLain to injury is a big blow to an already struggling Cincinnati Reds offense. McLain, one of the top contenders for National League Rookie of the Year is hitting .290/.357/.507 this season with 43 extra-base hits and 14 stolen bases in 89 games played. Defensively he’s been steady at both shortstop and second base (the last few nights perhaps being the exception).
McLain joins other lineup stalwarts Jonathan India and Jake Fraley on the injured list, leaving the Reds without several key contributors as they head into the final month of the season battling for both the National League Central and a wild card spot.
Cincinnati is getting back Stuart Fairchild. He was dealing with a concussion after crashing into the wall making a catch last week. Fairchild didn’t play for five days before heading to Triple-A Louisville for a short rehab assignment. He played in two games over the weekend against Toledo, going 1-5 with a walk and a run scored. He played center in his first game and then in left for his second game.
With a left-handed pitcher on the mound tonight in San Francisco the Reds have Fairchild right back in the lineup. He’ll be in right field this evening and he’s batting 7th as the two clubs begin a 3-game series at Oracle Park.
Oof. Season just got even tougher.
That may do it for the team, he’s been their best player. Hopefully it’s a quick and successful return.
Not looking forward to David Bell’s lineups even more now. Steer at 2B tonight is okay. Surprised Newman is not in there but then again he’s on the IL. People have been saying no Barrero unless an injury to a middle infielder. Now you have an injury. No Barrero.
Yes, isn’t that remarkable?
David Bell really, really doesn’t like Barrero.
David Bell does not decide who is on the roster.
Is this a problem league wide or just cincinnati, I remember John kruk saying he didn’t even know he had an oblique, but yet the reds seem to have a ton of this injury
Why is Hopkins hitting in the DH spot … in fact why is he STILL ON THIS ROSTER ????? !!!!
This isn’t even a AAA lineup …. Dude stands up their star gazing , doesn’t know what a baseball bat is used for ….he CANNOT PLAY AT THIS LEVEL period
Because a poor hitting right handed bat is much more important to Mr. Bell than a hot hitting seeing the ball well Martini.
About time, only his 2nd start!
Why is T j dh at190 something. Why not Stevenson?
Bell has more information than we do, I’ve been told.
Because Stephenson is starting to heat up. Time for a day off.
Trying to rank the players I think we can least afford to lose. I’d rank McLain first, with EDLC and Steer close behind.
This is tough news.
The loss wouldn’t be so devastating if they replaced him with a guy who’s hitting well and plays good defense. But they’re going with Hopkins and Siani.
That Lineup is woof!
I’d still have the hot bat of Martini in there and bat him or Friedl 2nd behind Marte.
Still no urgency from Bell with the season expiring rapidly.
Like he said post game. “We’re learning a lot”.
Lol!
I bet that he already has his concession speech written out for tonight’s post-game. “We learned that handedness isn’t the issue, the guys are just tired, and that’s why we only had 3 hits in tonight’s game. “We’ll learn from this going forward”.
I… disapprove of this message:)
Melvin, I don’t get this guy at all. If he had to take a managerial test to get certified to be a bb manager, he would fail miserably. Did Krall forget to tell him that we aren’t in tank mode anymore? That, we’re supposed to be in pennant race mode? Maybe that explains it, he didn’t get copied on the internal memo that it’s time to win.
In all seriousness how did he make it through interviews with SF, Az.? Nepotism for us.
If Bell ever feels a sense of urgency, how would we even know? I mean, his instinct might have been to bat Hopkins cleanup tonight, but a sense of urgency changed his mind. Who knows what goes through this guy’s head?
I think most of us have come to the end of the line with David Bell.
Yet, he just received a 3 year extension from the Reds Top Management.
Which means 3 more years of just treading water. I guess it just wasn’t our year….get used to saying that.
Just saw this post and now I’m afraid to go look at the posted line-up.
Obliques are notoriously hard to shake, so given what the calendar says, I’m thinking we’ve seen the last of MattyMc for the 2023 season.
Realizing this is a complete “Debbie Downer” attitude, October baseball options just vanished for the most part.
I agree — this season has already been a positive, frankly massively better than 98% of Reds fans could have expected.
But, here we are, and just not sure how the guys in the current lineup (along with current gassed pen and shaky rotation) could even play 500 ball. Gonna root for them though!
+10,000
I won’t watch much tonight primarily because of the start time.
Every rollercoaster ride eventually comes to an end.
We got to watch competitive baseball a season earlier than expected. And there’s still more to come. That’s pretty awesome!
OK, Melvin (and others) … having seen the line-up, HDTBell is now ranked #90 with a load of cement and bricks encased in a 4-ton safe.
hahaha 😀
Mail it in.
Tonight’s line up has 2 players hitting over .250, oh my God what happened to this team that was once a solid playoff contender. Another point, once they signed Mancini why haven’t they brought him up, especially under these conditions. The next 10 games = Giants for 3, Cubs for 4, Mariners for 3. I would predict 3 and 7 at the best and 1 and 9 is a possibility.
Because Mancini is no better than these other AAAA OF’ers they are using.
Well I’ll give you better than Hopkins.
Mancini .234/.299/.336
At least he has a track record of some success which is more than I can say for most of the remaining members of this team.
At this point, I strongly believe that this season has been largely sabotaged by Bell, Krall’s unwillingness to be more aggressive at the pre and trade deadline, and perhaps ownership non-commitment to seize the opportunity when it was there for the taking. We have met the enemy and tragically it was collectively self inflicted. Nothing worst than quitting on the team and the fan base. Bottom line: The Reds will never, ever be a championship caliber team with Bell as manager.
This season has been more enjoyable than all but one or two others in the Castellini tenure.
But is anyone really satisfied by acknowledging that fact ( obviously it’s just my opinion)? Yet many bring that up when many others express frustration with the Reds management.
My takeaway is that the Reds as an organization at present knows very little about winning baseball. Period. As in very unfamiliar with winning as a concept. And it’s been that way for the entire tenure of the produce man.
That I and many others are constantly disappointed in the organization’s continued ineptitude when it comes to doing its absolute best to win; really makes me ask myself what did I expect?
Krall just needed to perform a miracle at the deadline and he didnt.
Lose Greene, Lodolo,india,Fraley, McLain to injuries
Never get back Santillan, Gutierrez, or Antone.
Stephenson underperforms
Sims underperforms
Elly has a wRC+ of 57 since the AS
Votto is injured and underperforming.
CES and marte WRC+ under 80
Friedl wRC+ under 70 since the AS break.
Reds literally now have one hitter- Benson – above league avg since the AS break. Bullpen is gassed. Abbot is 30 innings over his prior high year. But, Krall needed to find Cy Young, 2 silver sluggers and 2 more established MLB arms at the deadline to win the Nl Central this year. Fire Krall!!!
Or, management could have made some modicum of effort to at least act like winning is an objective.
But good straw man argument if that floats your boat!
Answer the bell
Name 5 specific moves straw man krall could have made
Lets deal in reality
Not hypotheticals
Make your argument of deals that would have changed this season’s trajectory. Looking forward to this … specific trades that would have fixed this massive roster injury problem coming off a 100
Loss year that wins the NL central
Bring your knowledge vegas Red with details and specifics that would have made the Reds NL central champions….knowing the situation in late august. Educate us with your GM brilliance
LoL! Injuries have always been part of the game. It’s the incompetence that unacceptable. Unequivocally, agree that several pieces were missing, that might or not have worked out. They didn’t pull or were unwilling to pull the trigger; weak-kneed and faint hearted. Comparatively, it’s like not swinging and taking the third strike on a
3-2 count when the game is on the line. if you don’t swing, you will never hit the ball. I don’t ever blame a player if he swings (misses) under that circumstance.
Why even root for a team that’s this incompetent? What a waste of time. We expect athletes to fight through for adversity for our entertainment but when there’s the slightest bit of adversity, we’re the first to blame and criticize. I’d say don’t be that guy but that guy is all the seems to he left.
We had a team that was on fire, but instead of feeding the fire, we let it burn out. Then after the fire is out we hear from fans “why should they have added logs logs to a dying fire, the fire was going out?” Well if we added the logs we might still have a roaring fire.
All of those problems you listed, and the Reds are still only 1.5 games out.
I see Texas and Yankees are much more competent.
I think the loss of India and Fraley on the team’s mentality was more important than I realized. Then add on top of this the “loss” of Lodolo and performance of Hunter and its quite a bit for a bunch of rookies and a whipped bullpen to deal with.
McLain is probably the best hitter on the team. His loss will be substantial.
It will be interesting to see how the likes of Senzel, Marte, Hopkins, Friedl, Stephenson, Diaz, Moll, and CES perform. Are they the type that are leaders or are they the type that are looking around for someone to lead them. Say what you will, but this is an important time to figure out what type of players we have left on the team and its not necessarily a bad thing to find this out in 2023 instead of a pennant race in 2024.
I think Trey Mancini could be called up if Hopkins has a bad performance tonight… It’s a really bad luck to have McLain injured at this time as well as Fraley and India… It’s a repeatitive situation thru the recent years that the key players frequently get injured… The oblique injuries are tough so generally it takes long time to health, hopefully McLain could return after the 10-day stint but this is a gut punch actually…
Let’s face it this team way over performed for about a month and 1/2, after that they have been average to below average at best. Now that the ship has sailed on this season I am not as Bullish on next year unless Krall can spin some miracles, mostly by trades for it is a weak free agent class.
Agree 100 percent. I have been saying all along we are at best 2 years away from being WS contenders. We need some players to have super seasons and 3 or 4 starting pitchers to eat up 1(0 to 180 innings.
There is no sense of urgency because Nick Krall and David Bell have long since given up on the season. Krall knew the Castellinis would not sign off on any additional payroll, so why even try to make a deal? If that is how they feel then fine, but why rush Hunter Greene. He has already had one TJ surgery. Don’t put the young man’s career at risk. It’s clear that something is wrong with him. Also, why continue to push Andrew Abbott? Shut him down before you damage his arm.
I’d say your take on Krall is accurate. Frankly, I have to believe he’s hoping for a personal upgrade to an organization that gives a fat-flying-rip and backs that with funding.
HDTBell is another story. Somehow, I think he believes he’s earned the job based on his knowledge/performance. I just get that vibe from his overly bland “we’re learning” or “getting better in a weird way” presentation of things. Plus, he ultimately knows he’s family and he’s cheap for the cheap-o ownership. Plus they guys love playing for him … so I guess failing to win doesn’t get under anybody’s skin.
Yep, Krall and Bell seem like the kinda guys who give up at the slightest resistance. Not like us fans who tough it out.
Inaccurate.
Castellini has open up the purse when they expected to contend.
Votto/Bruce/Cueto/Bailey/Phillips/Moose/Castellanos
Don’t ever give up!!!! Keep putting the team out there and hope for the best. It’s been a very exciting year with more to come. Who says we can’t pull off a miracle and run off a 3-game sweep in Frisco. We have had hero’s all year and maybe we can find a few more. WHEN HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A TEAM WITH THIS MANY ROOKIES DO SO WELL. I have been watching baseball for 60 years and I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen a better young team. We have about 50 mil coming off the books next year. LET’S GO!!!!!
Agree 100%. It’s not entirely the players fault, or injuries, it’s the pathetic ineptitude, lack of stern leadership, and consistently imbecilic, actions, and moronic statements by Bell reflective of a clueless manager that almost all of us agree are frustrated with. The players are professional athletes. Bell, is nowhere close to being a professional major league caliber manager. Future is three more years of abysmal misery, and disappointment.
Been a fan for 60 years and a bunch of us on here are just that old or older.Baseball is just about winning for us but now its about entertaining and marketing your players to get fans to come out.Krall has now talented young players and fans will come out to see them.Home run celebrations down 4 runs is the norm and the crazier it gets the more people want to go see it or watch it.Losses bother us more then it bother the players or the rest of the leadership.Not saying the players don’t want to win or aren’t trying just saying its different.Look at the Yankees probably still filling up the stands,just an awful team and with money to burn.Cashman and Boone and others would have been gone months ago if George was alive yet there is talk that both will return next year.Its all about the money.
Mancini and Dunn and Barrero are all better options than Fairchild.
Exactly ! … and Hopkins
Not sure if I have the stamina to watch after the pivotal series against Milwaukee, the Cubs, and Snakes all failed. The Reds have (or had) some flourishes to stay relevant but losing this series kind of gets the playoff chance close to drawing the open straight after keeping four cards (about 15%). Hope there is some urgency since this team would benefit greatly from a playoff appearance even if it is 2020 style. Otherwise, I’ll be checking anywhere I can to see if I can stream some reruns of “Bowling For Dollars” with Glenn Ryle to get the hopes up for the next season spend…more or less.
Get well Matt your health is the most important thing. We will miss you.
Now we know what has been holding him back.
Jim Day said in pre-game that McClain had been “dealing with” the injury. So was he keeping it to himself and just toughing it out; or the team knew and had him keep playing? Or was it just an inaccurate turn of phrase by Day and this just occured? It would help explain his errors of late and also not quite reaching those outside pitches and K’ing a bit more. In any case, not a great approach as it compromised things and maybe aggravated his condition.
“Turn out the lights, the party is over!”