The Cincinnati Reds have two guys officially on rehab assignment in Triple-A Louisville, but a third guy is also there trying to work his way back on a slightly less official assignment. Outfielder Jake Fraley and infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand both joined the Bats on rehab assignment over the weekend. Taking the mound yesterday was Wade Miley, who after making some starts at the lower levels is now in Triple-A as a minor leaguer and not officially on a “rehab assignment” at this point.
For Jake Fraley, he was starting his rehab assignment when he joined the Bats on Saturday. He went 0-4 in the first game of his assignment. But he came out on Sunday and obliterated a ball, hitting a 427-foot home run against Gwinnett’s Bryce Elder. Fraley’s home run left the bat at 109.2 MPH and was out in a hurry. The home run would be the only hit of the game for Fraley, but he made it count.
Hitting behind Fraley in the lineup on Sunday was Christian Encarnacion-Strand. He started his rehab assignment earlier in the week out in Arizona. After going 0-3 in his first game he went 2-4 with a double and two runs batted in in Goodyear on Friday night. He arrived in Louisville on Sunday to keep his rehab going and served as the team’s designated hitter. Encarnacion-Strand went 1-3 with a walk, double, and he scored a run. The double for the Reds infielder bounced off of the warning track before hitting the wall and he cruised into second base standing up.
How quickly either player could return to join Cincinnati isn’t yet known. Fraley, who is coming back from some calf discomfort, lasted played with the Reds a little less than three weeks ago in Atlanta on May 6th. It’s been a bit longer for Encarnacion-Strand. He lasted played against Seattle on April 16th and has been dealing with a lower back injury.
Wade Miley is trying to come back from Tommy John surgery. He’s about a year out, which is a quicker timeline than most guys these days but he also noted that given his age he’s trying to come back quicker, too.
Things hadn’t been going well for him during his rehab games. In his first four starts he had allowed 13 earned runs on 19 hits in 8.2 innings spread across three starts with the Dayton Dragons and one with the Louisville Bats. But on May 20th he made his second start for Louisville and wound up with a rain-shortened complete game shutout as he tossed five innings of 2-hit baseball.
His stay on the mound was a short one on Sunday as he recorded just two outs and allowed four runs on five hits. Miley threw 29 pitches on the day and rather than try to push him through to see if he could get out of it the club opted to go to the bullpen and call it a day.
For the most part, Miley has thrown plenty of strikes since his return. He’s walked just one batter – though he has hit three of them. But he’s been very hittable, too. The lefty has given up 26 hits in his 14.1 innings in the minor leagues this season, and guys have a .388 batting average against him.
Doug do you have any updates on Marte and Williamson?
Williamson had Tommy John and he’s going to be out for the year.
Marte’s last update was that he’s scheduled to get an MRI tomorrow to check in on things (this is good news because they pushed it up because he was feeling/recovering better than expected).
Thanks Doug
Wade Miley should keep making steps and monitoring.
Hope CES could be the 2023 version hitter again, The Reds need that.
Any update about Rhett Lowder timeline, Doug? I read something he could miss months before starting activities again…
What about Tejay Antone? Is he still at Arizona complex? How is his progress going?
I actually saw Rhett coming out of a downtown Louisville hotel Saturday morning. With his usual brisk stride. I didn’t try to chat him up because enough people do that to athletes these days. I was actually surprised, but no doubt it was him. Did not look like a player favoring anything significantly to me. Perhaps he caught it early enough where it won’t be another lengthy delay to his outing.
Good health to him.
I’m hopeful Miley can be a multi inning relief pitcher. But his age and major surgery doesn’t make me optimistic
If Miley keeps getting hit hard in AAA, it might be time for retirement for the veteran. Some guys can go into their early 40s but not very many these days.
He went 5 shutout innings last time out. I think he is just rusty from start to start as a pitcher coming back from arm issues tends to be.
I think Castellini Sr. Has a soft spot for guys he likes who have been popular for the organization in the past . He led the charge to bring back Arroyo when he was obviously done. I sat directly behind him in Dayton when Homer Bailey was making a rehab start. He sang his praises for being a great guy when everybody else thought he was a jerk. Miley is the latest, who is obviously done who is getting a longer than prudent opportunity. Father Time is unbeaten.
Miley might be done however I wouldn’t be surprised if he has something left in the tank and had a very good second half. He’s not the type of pitcher that got outs with dominant stuff. He was very similar to Suter, so it’s not like his fastball has gone so he needs to retire.
Yep, this is essentially spring training for him. The next several weeks will show us if he can help, and I can see him bouncing back and pitching effectively, provided he proves he is healthy and recovered.
Entirely premature to be writing Miley off.
There’s no hurry and there’s no down side to taking as much time as he might need.
He’s lost considerable time before due to injury (albeit not TJ) and was written off and came back and performed well.
He’s been on an every-other-year cycle since 2017.
Let him keep working on it.
I was at Miley’s start yesterday in Louisville. I did not get impression I was watching a guy that was washed up. He gave up 3 little flair singles and then got squeezed a bit by the umpire. The first 2 flairs I felt should have been caught – first one to Blake Dunn I felt he kind of gave up on. 2nd to rece hinds was one he just didn’t realize how soft it was hit and got a bad jump on it. Then he gave up 2 sharp hits which ran his pitch count up to 30 and you don’t run a rehabbing older pitcher past 35 pitches in his first inning , so he was done.
But he was pitching like I’ve seen from him before. Felt like a very unlucky outing to me. I’d be surprised if he isn’t pitching in the mlb for someone by July.
Agreed. The thing is that Wade has the knowledge part down pat. I’m not sure what speed he’s pitching, which never was his thing anyways. He does have to get feel back with off speed pitches and hitting locations. The summer heat may actually help him.
There will be no one better than Wade Miley to know if and when he is returned to form. So, far, one step forward and one back seems on schedule for an early TJ return.
The lineup is out with Hampson at SS and EDLC at DH? Seriously? Is EDLC injured? If not, I rather have seen Hampson in for McLain for the day vs this. Though I’d really rather Hampson was someone else’s starter. I can’t imagine that Francona really thinks Hampson is an asset, despite his public comments.
The lineup I saw has Elly at ss, and Hampson at 3rd? Unless it was changed
Well okay it was changed from what I saw a few hours earlier.
Yes. Elly pulled up lame running 1st to home last night. None of the announcers noticed it. I was surprised he stayed in the game. Maybe the coaches didn’t notice it either. Probably should not even DH