Two of the Cincinnati Reds top prospects will begin rehab assignments next week. Both Jesse Winker and Tyler Stephenson are trying to recover from wrist injuries and will head out to Arizona starting tomorrow and begin playing in rehab games with the Arizona League Reds.
Jesse Winker last played for the Triple-A Louisville Bats on June 12th. He went 0-1 in the game with a strikeout before being replaced in the lineup by Bryson Smith. While injuries never come at a good time, Winker has been hitting very well for the two weeks prior to the injury. In the previous 14 games he was 19-53 (.358) with five doubles and seven walks.
For the season he’s hitting .286/.381/.367 with 33 walks and 32 strikeouts in 55 games. It’s the power that’s been lacking so far in 2016 for the outfielder. Perhaps that’s been related to the wrist bothering him some earlier in the year, but he’s also been hitting a high rate of ground balls this season and, well, it’s tough to hit for power when the ball is on the ground. His 2015 was similar, hitting a lot of grounders in the first half, then finding fly ball rates closer to his career rate in the second half and the power showed up.
Catcher Tyler Stephenson last played on May 26th for the Dayton Dragons. He went 0-5 on that day against Lake County. At that point he was only two weeks removed from a previous trip to the disabled list, missing just over two weeks with a concussion.
Stephenson had gotten out to a slow start, hitting just .136 in April before heading to the disabled list with the concussion. When he returned for two weeks in May he certainly posted better numbers, hitting .250/.308/.354 in 52 plate appearances. That seems like an improvement, and it was, but he also struck out 20 times in those 52 plate appearances – good for a strikeout rate of 38%.
Neither player has a timeline set for their return. It will likely depend on how quickly they seem to get back into the swing of things and find their timing at the plate.