The bad news hit the Cincinnati Reds landscape on Tuesday night when it was announced that top prospect Nick Senzel had injured his ankle in a minor league game earlier in the day. He had X-rays that night and they came back negative. The next day he an MRI and it was announced that he would be in a walking boot for 7-14 days.
That kind of left his timetable of a return up in the air. It was speculated this morning by Jeff Passan of ESPN that he could miss “up to two months”. Fortunately for Nick Senzel, and for the Cincinnati Reds, that doesn’t seem to be the case. On Reds Live, prior to the game this afternoon, Dr. Tim Kremchek had this to say about Senzel’s ankle injury:
He’s doing a lot better early on than we thought. So I think it’s going to be sooner for him to be able to get to Louisville, play a little center field, get seasoned, get some at-bats. He’s not going to be long at all. Unfortunate for him. Unfortunate for the Reds. But he’ll to be up here very soon.
Good news coming from the mouth of the Cincinnati Reds medical staff about the teams top prospect. While the timetable is still sort of “up in the air”, whatever it was at the time it happened, it seems to be moving up. That’s always better than the other side of the coin with the dreaded “setback” that sometimes will happen.
Cincinnati Reds minor league releases
An unfortunate part of the game of baseball is that players lose their jobs. And for a handful of players each year that happens during spring training.
| Player | Position |
| A.J. Moore | Pitcher |
| Anthony Bass | Pitcher |
| Connor Ryan | Pitcher |
| Daniel Sweet | Outfielder |
| Francis Jones | Pitcher |
| Jesse Adams | Pitcher |
| John Sansone | Infielder |
| Josh Rich | Pitcher |
| Logan Taylor | Outfielder |
| Luis Alecis | Pitcher |
| Mason Williams | Outfielder |
| Patrick McGuff | Pitcher |
| Perez Knowles | Pitcher |
| Ricardo Smith | Pitcher |
| Seth Varner | Pitcher |
| Stuart Turner | Catcher |
| Tommy Bergjans | Pitcher |
Perhaps the biggest surprise on this list was Seth Varner. He was the pitcher that I pegged for the RedsMinorLeagues.com Starting Pitcher of the Year for the 2018 season. The left-handed pitcher isn’t a big time prospect. His fastball touches the upper 80’s as a starting pitcher. He’s not going to be confused with Aroldis Chapman by any stretch of the imagination. But last season, with all of his starts but one taking place in Double-A, he posted a 3.30 ERA in 125.1 innings with 31 walks and 102 strikeouts. He’s performed and he’s performed well.
For some of the guys above, this will be the end of their career. Josh Rich, for example, has decided to retire. Some of the others may catch on with other teams – affiliated or otherwise – and continue to chase down their dream.