Reds outfielder Shogo Akiyama will be sidelined for “a few weeks” due to a left hamstring injury, manager David Bell told The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans (Twitter link) and other reporters. Akiyama suffered the injury on Saturday when trying to beat out a grounder at first base, and he was removed from the game prior to the Reds’ next turn in the field.
The timing means that Akiyama will begin the season on the 10-day injured list, and depending on the severity of the injury and the rehab/prep time Akiyama will have to put in at the alternate training site, it’s possible the Reds could be without the outfielder until around the middle of April.
After nine seasons as a standout with the Seibu Lions, Akiyama signed a three-year, $21MM deal with Cincinnati in January 2020. Given all of the unique difficulties of the 2020 season, it is rather hard to properly judge Akiyama’s first season in Major League Baseball, though he did show some positive signs. Akiyama’s overall .245/.357/.297 slash line in 183 plate appearances was marred by a very slow start, as he recovered to hit .333/.474/.383 over his final 76 PA of the regular season.
With a more normal offseason and some MLB experience now under his belt, there is reason to believe Akiyama can continue to be a productive player for the Reds, though the team wasn’t relying on him as an everyday option. Cincinnati’s first-choice starting outfield of Jesse Winker, Nick Senzel, and Nicholas Castellanos means that Akiyama was slated to be a well-paid fourth outfielder, though he was likely to get a lot of action as a defensive sub and as a fill-in for Senzel in center field against some right-handed pitchers.
In Akiyama’s absence, Aristides Aquino and Scott Heineman now stand better chances of winning Opening Day roster spots as Cincinnati’s top backup outfielder. Minor league signing Dee Strange-Gordon can also fill in as a center fielder in a pinch, when he isn’t needed in the infield.
players are so fragile now. obviously something is wrong with the game today.
Yeah it’s like they changed the rules so guys could be on the IL for a shorter period of time to get right instead of toughing through it and doing steroids to recover like the old days. Freaking wusses
Are players really more fragile these days or are we just better at diagnosis and understanding of injuries?
Great points in rebuttal; but I do see his point with a couple of specific players/injuries. Hosmer brings up an excellent point below as well, but I think, in large part, the entire culture has changed wherein players are both mentally and physically shielded more. It’s a microcosm of the country / culture as a whole – not necessarily wrong for the sport as it pertains to injuries for the reasons you all stated though.
It has permeated throughout all levels, which is why college football players sit out there final few games when they’re stars at times, or how the All Star game used to be played with the same vigor, but no more. Like anything, pros and cons.
IRT the culture as a whole, the issue is that kids have it too easy these days. 50-60 years ago, most of the people I knew struggled a little. Very few went away to college, and a lot didn’t even go to college.
Now, I think, a lot of your life is pre-ordained.or pre-planned. I am lucky to have come from The Bronx. I’d say the local AAU team was about 1/3 black, Latino and white. It feels like the black and 2nd generation Latinos parents are in better shape than some of the recent white college grads.
Weak attempt. Players used to get paid peanuts so nobody cared if they got hurt and they would just disappear. You see more people on injured lists now because teams are interested in protecting assets they’ve invested millions of dollars in.
Agreed, and depending on the injuries it’s like how badly do you need one player to another to go out there today? It’s just in bad faith to players in 2021 that you’d make them play through more severe injuries too.. It’s not the mid 20th century where free agency is a pipe dream; players control their destiny and teams are increasingly forced to hear out the players
Uh so … Noshogo?
That or Shono
Oh-no! Ouchi-ham(string)a!
Not good. Not good at all.
Go sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done here.
I think I’ll re-evaluate all my life choices after that one.
Troll
He has got to be one of the worst international signings of all time. He played mostly left-field last year and he didn’t even hit a single homer.
since when were homers the measuring stick for every player?
Ugh idk since the last 10 years. Shortstops and center fielders can’t even stick as glove first players, only kevin kiermaier
I get your point, but there are a few guys that are glove first CFers in MLB. Jackie Bradley comes to mind, Harrison Bader (he can Jack a couple though), and a few others.
Dark side … don’t defend this clown , he was a wasted signing of 21 mil …. glad his wife made it through her ordeal tho … who walks through a park and a tree falls on you … what the luck …
Are you seriously that naive,or that dumb?
To be fair to Akiyama he was signed to play a lot more CF. Then because the NL unexpectedly had a DH last year, the team used its usual LF (Jesse Winker) almost exclusively at DH, moving Akiyama to LF.
Billy: If you ask someone if he’s dumb or naive, and he’s dumb, there’s a strong likelihood that he won’t know it. If you think about it in those terms, it’s a pretty unfair question.
183 oddball at bats during a pandemic and you are calling it a bust?
He’s not very good I’ll give ya that but in 2014 Arizona gave Cuban yasmany tomas 70 mil; that’s 3.5x worse. Doubt shogo is in top 10 worst international contracts 1 year into a 3 year deal
I can think of about 10 worse international signings.
Your comment rivals the worst comment of all time!
Hrs is a very 1960s way to assess a player.. OPS is much better. And his OPS still isn’t good, but he did have a good September. He basically started off his MLB career with 83 poor ABs, and had an .820 OPS after that.
I’d suggest you give him at least another 83 ABs before assessing his career.
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You could probably just sell your hand for 5 bucks.
4th gen Reds fan; Shogo was signed to compete and win a starting job and it didn’t happen. He was a decent platoon player for the last couple months of 2020. By his demeanor he seems to yet gain a level of MLB confidence.