Updated at 4:25pm
In what almost seems cruel to me because of the timing, the Cincinnati Reds are sliding Nick Senzel over to shortstop tonight for the Triple-A Louisville Bats. Earlier today I had an article published at The Athletic looking at the second base position in the organization and wondered openly why guys like Nick Senzel and Shed Long weren’t being looked at at positions that weren’t blocked by guys slugging .550 in the Major Leagues.
If you have followed me here in the comments, or on twitter, you’ve certainly seen me say something like this:
If the Reds truly believed that Nick Senzel could play shortstop, then he’d be playing there. They’d be crazy to believe there was a chance that he could play there, and not actually be trying to play him there given the additional value at the position. Or the fact that their current shortstop, Jose Peraza, can’t hit the ball out of the infield and you have to go all of the way down to Dayton before finding a guy who looks like a possibility to one day be a future starting shortstop in the Major Leagues.
Since we are now sitting in the middle of June and Nick Senzel hasn’t played a game at shortstop since spring training, the logical conclusion would be that they saw him there in the spring and didn’t think he could handle the spot. Because, again, see the quote above. Yet, here we are. In the middle of June, and Senzel is starting at shortstop for Louisville. The timing of it all is a bit strange.
Update on Nick Senzel at shortstop, second, and third base
I’ve been told that tonight is more of a one game situation for Nick Senzel at shortstop to keep him current at the position and that he will continue to play at second and third base.