Tyler Stephenson, the Cincinnati Reds 2015 1st round draft pick, is going to miss the remainder of the 2017 season. The news broke on the Dayton Dragons pre-game show when Tom Nichols was talking with manager Luis Bolivar. Stephenson injured the thumb on Friday night and went to Arizona to have it evaluated where he got the bad news that he would require surgery to fix the torn ligament.
This will mark the second consecutive season in which Tyler Stephenson will miss a good chunk of the year due to injury. Last season he injured his wrist and ultimately needed surgery. He tried playing with the injury a few times during the season but it never worked out for very long before he headed back to the disabled list before eventually being shut down for good and getting surgery.
The 2017 season had been going well for Tyler Stephenson. The right handed hitter had played in 80 games and was hitting .278/.374/.414 with 44 walks and 58 strikeouts. Over the last month he had been on fire, hitting .316/.398/.553 with nine doubles and three home runs in 21 games.
Scott Moss to the disabled list
Left handed pitcher Scott Moss is heading to the disabled list for Dayton as well. However this is nothing serious and he’s only expected to miss one start, essentially just to get him a rest. Moss has already thrown more innings in the 2017 season than he’s ever thrown in a year. It sounds like this is something that may also be happening with other young pitchers coming up, too.
Taking his spot in the rotation, at least for the time being is Alex Webb. The right hander will be joining the Dragons from the Arizona League Reds where he had been rehabbing. He started two games for Dayton earlier this year at the end of April and first week of May, but those were the only two games in which he appeared before heading to the disabled list.