The Cincinnati Reds have sent catcher Tyler Stephenson and left-handed pitcher Sam Moll to join the Triple-A Louisville Bats on rehab assignments today. Louisville will begin a 6-game series at home against the Iowa Cubs at 6:05pm ET tonight.
Tyler Stephenson is working his way back from an oblique injury that he suffered back in spring training. The catcher last played in a game on March 11th against the Colorado Rockies. It was his 9th game of the spring and he had hit .227/.370/.455 to that point. But the next day he didn’t feel quite right and brought it up to the team and they shut things down from there. Six weeks later he’s ready to get back on the field and try to get back to the Reds lineup.
In his absence the team has gotten plenty of production at the plate from the catcher position as both Jose Trevino and Austin Wynns have stepped up. Jose Trevino has hit .292/.346/.458 in his 19 games. Wynns has been even better, though he’s played in just nine games he’s hit .455/.500/.727 during his time.
Sam Moll began the year on the active roster, but he struggled in his first week-and-a-half of the season. In three outings he allowed four runs over 2.0 innings while giving up a home run, walking three batters, and striking out just one of the 12 hitters he faced. During his final outing against Milwaukee he also allowed two inherited runners to score (along with the three runs he allowed that were charged to him). He wound up on the injured list with left shoulder impingement a week later. Moll also missed the final three weeks of the 2024 season with the same kind of injury.
How long each guy is expected to be on rehab assignment is unknown at this point. Stephenson has been out quite a bit longer than Moll has, so it may take more time for him to get back as he could need additional at-bats to get back into the groove of seeing pitches and getting his swing big league ready.
Great news! Hoping that CES, Lowder and Spiers have equally good news in the near future. Let’s get a win for the Skipper today! Go Reds!
Trevino and Wynn’s have been great offensively. Has there been any talk about their defense? I’m sure their teammates are praising their catcher’s play, but have any announcers or other professionals spoke about their framing skills or how they call a game?
Wade Miley starts at Dayton as well.
It’ll prolly also depend on how well the lineup is performing. Currently, they’re starting to click. My guess is Monday for the homestand starting with the Cards, at the earliest.
Very good news. Interesting choices coming up.
Looks like Francona will give both Candelario and Steer equal opportunities to break out of their slumps. Candelario in the lineup hitting 6th today. Hopefully, one of them takes the lead on this soon.
Good news really. It’s obvious Stephenson means a boost for the lineup despite Trevino and Wynns have performed very well offensively. The key point here is Trevino and Wynns have hit at the 9th spot the most of the games and Francona hasn’t tried and likey he won´t to line them up higher in the batting order. Stephenson could be maybe between 5th and 7th spot in the lineup so he is going to face many chances to drive runs in…
Good point because I was wondering how TySteve was gonna improve on what the currents catchers have been doing. Almost seems like that position will inevitably take a step backwards in the immediate aftermath of Stephenson returning only to (hopefully),eventually, pay dividends in the long term.
I would actually hope, unless Steer improves, which he still has a couple of weeks to improve, that they would replace ty steve with him. he has not hit well since 23, this may be injury related. If it is, he does not need to be working through it in the bigs. If it is not, he needs to go re-find his swing.
Why do you think he won’t move either hot batter up in the batting order so they can drive in runs?
If what they reported on last night’s telecast, that Spiers was already hurt but hid it from the team and now he’s going to be out for six weeks after “taking one for the team” is true then they really need to reevaluate some things. That’s just not OK. I don’t think that story reflects well on anybody.
Going to Louisville to see if this is really true. Finally!
A Louisville lineup post on X says TS is not only batting second but is also behind the plate.
https://twitter.com/LouisvilleBats/status/1914760224390484407
Wow, tough night for Miley in Dayton. 2.1 IP, 9H, 6ER, 2K, 1HR