Reds legend Joey Votto will be eligible to return from the injured list on Sunday, but it appears that the plate discipline devotee will need at least a few more days before resuming his role as the elder statesman on the Cincy lineup card. “He’s making a lot of progress,” manager David Bell told Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Still no date. I know he’s eligible tomorrow. That won’t happen. Maybe not too far behind.”
Votto did some on-field work in rehab for his lower back injury on Friday. Cincinnati has around a 1% chance of reaching the playoffs this year on the strength of a 60-67 record entering Saturday, so Votto’s return will likely be mostly about gaining a little feel-good momentum entering 2020–a year in which the Reds expect to compete, as evidenced by their deadline acquisition of ace Trevor Bauer.
More jottings from around the National League this weekend…
- For Padres fans suffering through their 13th-consecutive season without a playoff appearance, there has been no greater “what if” story in recent years than the continued tease offered by outfielder Franchy Cordero. Long noted for his prodigious raw power and tantalizing athletic gifts, Cordero’s path toward center field playing time has been submarined by repeated injury–an unfortunate circumstance given the recent-year struggles of center fielders Wil Myers and Manuel Margot. Now, as noted in a tweet from MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, Cordero is back on the rehab trail. While it was a wonky elbow that sidelined Cordero for most of 2018 and the beginning of this year, it was a hurt quad that has delayed his rehab for the last two months. Saturday marked Cordero’s first game in the resumption of his rehabilitative assignment, as the outfielder appeared at DH in the Arizona League. Manager Andy Green, however, has apparently learned to be cautiously optimistic in regard to Franchy’s injuries–with the key word being “cautiously”. “He’s on the path toward returning,” Green said. “It’s not a short path, though.”
- Mark Zuckerman of MASN provides partial updates on Nationals arms Roenis Elias and Sean Doolittle, saying that Elias is “heading in the right direction” and that Doolittle should be ready for activation when his IL stint is up on August 28th (Twitter link). Does it even bear repeating that the Nats are in need of as much pitching help as they can get? Elias, for his part, appeared in just one D.C. game before being felled by injury. Between Seattle and Washington this year, the veteran has a 3.59 ERA through 47.2 relief innings, although his 4.68 xFIP indicates that he should be due for some bad luck regression if he does indeed make it back soon. Doolittle, for his part, has been the subject of a great deal of armchair psychology in recent weeks, as a rough stretch of play (10 earned runs in his last 5 appearances) culminated in his placement on the 10-day injured list with a knee injury. Nats relievers have amassed a 6.00 ERA on the year.
I love Votto but I still can’t believe he’s owed $100MM over the next four years.
Actually 109 if you count the buyout.
I love Votto but I still can’t believe he’s owed $100MM over the next 4 years. Votto is at 1.2 WAR this year. His top notch years are likely in the past.
Franchy is incredibly overrated. i dont understand how he gets as much play as he does.
Agreed. Never understood the Francy thing.
Guess he teased with some bombs while they sucked and so folks thought he was good — like Jankowski was supposed to be a 20-20 player for some reason.
Guess that since they have players now we can ignore all those lies!
Power/speed players like him are rare to find. He has a really seductive skill set
Keon Broxton says hi.
Franchy has Light tower power.
Just can’t stay on the field.
Big Power and little else was enough for Pete Alonso to get run all year.
Not saying they’re the same player…..saying power seems to be all anyone cares about these days.
Alonso can stay healthy and strikes out maybe half as much as Cordero.
Alonso 24% K rate
Franchy 35% K rate
Franchy is an all around way better player
Only thing Franchy does better is run faster
Hits better, runs faster, plays better D, why dont we just swap Franchy for Alonso?
Franchy also cost the padres two no hitters last year.
Make Votto the next Player-Manager. Just ask him not to bet on games and the Reds will be fine.
Pretty certain they tried asking the first time and it didn’t work out well.
That’s just lame! Back to troll school for you. Votto would be a horrible manager!
Why, fields?
I don’t know what the reason is for these black and white uniforms but I do know I want them to go away and never be seen again.
Maybe the uni’s are suppose to make them play better, LOL. This team is sinking and stinking fast and AJ and Green will have one more year to prove themselves.
This team will suck just as bad in 2020, having a few average and some good players do not make a good team. predict 2020 team will be under 500 again, more rebuilding and trades
We need Garadi as Mgr I believe we’d make the playoffs next year. Problem is AJ couldn’t tell him what to do or AJ couldn’t make out the line up. Why is Naylor batting second that’s a joke should be batting seventh . Too many guys in the line up hitting their weight, easy outs.
Naylor batting 2nd cost us some games.
Why not try Machado in the 5th spot?
Who is Garadi? Not trolling.
He means Joe Girardi, the guy who tried to lose some postseasons for the Yankees.
Also, Josh Naylor is hitting .294/.350/.505 since the start of July and is particularly strong against RHP’s. So he deserves to be near the top of the order of this lineup.
Not surprising as his replacement is likely as good if not better than Votto