Updates from Saturday, May 17
ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick has an update on Votto’s status:
Reds first baseman Joey Votto stayed behind in Cincinnati on Saturday while the team waited to decide if his strained left quadriceps will require a trip to the disabled list.
“We’re still optimistic that he may not need to go on the DL,” Price said. “That being said, we’ll probably have more clarity on that once we get through this weekend series and see how things have evolved.
“We want Joey back as Joey Votto, not as a shell or a shadow of who he is. We want him to play confidently on that knee and that leg for the rest of the season and the rest of his career moving forward. If that means it takes two or three weeks to get it right, that’s OK. But we also don’t want to put him on the DL if we feel that it might be a four-to-seven-day turnaround.”
Original Text
The Cincinnati Reds have struggled to keep pace in the NL Central this season, and things won’t get any easier now that first baseman Joey Votto is ailing.
C. Trent Rosecrans has an update on Votto’s MRI:
MLB‘s Mark Sheldon has Bryan Price’s thoughts on the injury:
It means there’s a reason for the soreness and the fatigue in the leg…We’ll collect as an organization after the game today and try to define the best course of either rehab or the best decision for Joey and the club.
I don’t think initially the feeling was that it was going to be chronic or long-term debilitating…But until you check anybody out, you don’t know what you can find. Yeah, it is a collective sigh of relief for sure that it’s not anything serious. It looks like all the structural stuff in the knee is great and intact. That’s the positive thing to this point.
The Reds later announced the lineup for today’s game, while C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer shed light on Votto’s replacement:
Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com first reported Votto’s knee injury that may cause him to be placed on the disabled list:
The Reds are currently third in their division with a record of 18-21, and they trail the surprising Milwaukee Brewers by seven games.
Votto, who won the National League MVP Award in 2010, has suffered through an up-and-down season thus far. He is hitting just .257 with six home runs and 12 RBI, although he boasts an excellent on-base percentage of .410 due to his elite pitch selection at the plate.
The 30-year-old star has been named to the All-Star team in four consecutive seasons and has been key to Cincinnati’s regular-season success in recent years.
As evidenced by these stats courtesy of ESPN 1530’s Lance McAlister, the month of May hasn’t been kind to Votto:
According to Gary Schatz of The Associated Press (h/t Kentucky.com), Votto recently intimated that his production would eventually come around. “At the end of the year, you’ll look up and I’ll be about the same,” he said. “The frustrating part is my struggles have coincided with a number of close losses.”
It is unclear when Votto suffered the injury, so it is possible that it has nagged him over the course of the season. If that is the case, then it might explain his recent ineffectiveness.
Should Votto go on the DL, his absence will hurt the depth of Cincinnati’s lineup significantly. Even when he isn’t hitting well, he offers protection to other hitters in the lineup.
Add in the fact that outfielder Jay Bruce is on the shelf with a knee injury of his own, and the Reds offense is on the verge of becoming anemic.
Pitching and defense will have to step up without star hitters in the lineup, but it may be too late for the Reds to get back into the playoff race by the time Votto and Bruce return.
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