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Jose Barrero

Reds’ Jose Barrero Expected To Miss Six Weeks With Hamate Injury

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Reds infielder Jose Barrero has been sidelined with a sore left wrist, and that injury has now been revealed as issue with his hamate bone, The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans reports (via Twitter).  Barrero is going to visit a hand specialist for a second opinion, but the expectation is that he’ll miss six weeks of action.

The injury appears to have originally occurred earlier in the offseason, as Reds manager David Bell told The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale and other reporters that Barrero “said he felt something this winter and took a little bit of time off, then it was fine.  He did something on the field a couple of days ago that re-aggravated it.  It’s one of those things without having the ability to talk to him [during the lockout], we had no idea that it was going on.”

The result is that Barrero looks set to begin the season on the injured list, which is an unfortunate setback for one of the Reds’ most promising youngsters.  Barrero has seen a bit of action in each of the last two MLB seasons, hitting only .197/.242/.248 over 124 total plate appearances.  Much more production came at the minor league level in 2021, as Barrero hit a combined .303/.380/.539 with 19 home runs over 380 plate appearances with Double-A Chattanooga (180 PA) and Triple-A Louisville (200 PA).

It was a nice showing for the player Baseball America ranks as the top prospect in Cincinnati’s farm system, and the 33rd-best prospect overall in the sport.  According to BA’s scouting report, Barrero projects as “an above-average defender at shortstop,” and Reds GM Nick Krall said earlier this week that Barrero’s spring work would focus on the shortstop position rather than in center field.  Barrero made seven appearances as a center fielder last year as Cincinnati looked for way to get him into the lineup, as Kyle Farmer emerged as the Reds’ regular shortstop.

Since Farmer can play multiple positions, Barrero isn’t exactly blocked as the potential shortstop of the future, though his development will be put on hold as he recovers from his hamate injury.  With the Reds’ recent selloff of higher-priced veteran players, contending doesn’t seem to be the team’s top priority for 2022, so Barrero may likely get a longer stretch of playing time later in the season when he’s healthy and if the Reds have fallen out of the pennant race.

NL Notes: Brewers, Tellez, Naquin, Smith

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Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader combined on Major League Baseball’s record-setting ninth official no-hitter of the season, as the Brewers recorded a 3-0 victory over the Indians.  Burnes struck out 14 Cleveland batters over eight dominant innings, though since Burnes amassed 115 pitches, Hader was brought in to finish things off with a perfect ninth inning.  It was the second no-hitter in Brewers franchise history, since Juan Nieves’ gem on April 15, 1987.

Baseball’s “Year Of The No-Hitter” hasn’t been kind to the Indians, who have now set a record by being no-hit three times in a single season.  Zach Plesac has been the Tribe’s starting pitcher for all three of those games, and Plesac matches Jim Perry as the only hurler in baseball history to be on the mound opposite three no-hitters in his career (let alone in a single season).

The latest from around the senior circuit…

  • It wasn’t a perfect night for the Brewers, as first baseman Rowdy Tellez left the game prior to the bottom of the second inning due to a knee injury.  Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that Tellez has been bothered by the nagging injury for some time, and he will undergo an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the problem.  Acquired in a trade with the Blue Jays in early July, Tellez hit .265/.325/.464 with seven home runs over his first 166 plate appearances in a Milwaukee uniform.  Tellez has become the Brew Crew’s top first base option, though if he has to miss time on the injured list, the team can turn to a combination of Daniel Vogelbach, Eduardo Escobar, and Jace Peterson at first base.
  • A sixth-inning collision between Reds teammates Tyler Naquin and Jose Barrero resulted in Naquin leaving the game with bruised ribs.  Naquin and Barrero were both in pursuit of a short fly ball from the Cardinals’ Dylan Carlson, but the ball eluded the duo in painful fashion, resulting in an RBI double for Carlson.  In positive news, Reds manager David Bell told reporters (including C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic) that there weren’t any concerns that either Naquin or Barrero suffered a concussion.  The Reds don’t play on Monday, so it seems likely that Naquin will get two full days off to recuperate, and it remains to be seen if the injured list will ultimately be required.
  • Caleb Smith lost the appeal of his 10-game suspension, and began serving that suspension today.  The Diamondbacks southpaw was hit with the 10-game ban after umpires discovered a foreign substance on his glove during an August 18 game.  Smith strongly protested his ejection from the game and subsequent suspension, though his appeal didn’t result in a change of the league’s initial decision.  Smith has a 5.04 ERA/4.68 SIERA over 105 innings this season, moving between Arizona’s rotation and bullpen amidst a lot of control problems.

Reds Place Jesse Winker On Injured List

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AUGUST 19: Cincinnati manager David Bell told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com) this afternoon the team does not expect Winker will be ready to return when first eligible next Thursday. Bell didn’t provide any specifics as to when the Reds do believe Winker can make it back on the field, although he noted that the 28-year-old hasn’t yet begun baseball activities.

AUGUST 16: The Reds have placed outfielder Jesse Winker on the 10-day injured list, per a team announcement. Top infield prospect Jose Barrero has been summoned from Triple-A Louisville to take his spot on the active roster.

Winker, 28 tomorrow, recently missed three games due to this same intercostal discomfort and aggravated the injury upon returning to the lineup yesterday. He exited the game after just three innings.

Even a 10-day absence for Winker would be a notable blow to the Reds, who trail the Padres by two and a half games in the hunt for the second National League Wild Card spot. The All-Star left fielder has long been a quality bat but is in the midst of a breakout 2021 campaign. Through 481 plate appearances, he’s logged a .307/.395/.560 batting line with a career-high 24 home runs, an NL-best 32 doubles, a triple and a stolen base. Winker’s 235 total bases lead the National League.

The Reds are deep in outfield options to help cover Winker’s absence. Aristides Aquino and Shogo Akiyama figure to step up and shoulder the bulk of the extra work, joining Tyler Naquin and Nick Castellanos in the outfield. Even with that depth in place, however, there’s no means of simply replacing Winker’s production, which ranks among the game’s elite. His 152 wRC+ is tied for sixth among qualified hitters.

Cincinnati could have called up rehabbing outfielder Nick Senzel, but the presence of Aquino and Akiyama gives them enough cover in the outfield that they’re comfortable turning to a more concrete answer at another position of need: shortstop. The Reds have been playing utilityman Kyle Farmer there with regularity in recent weeks, but his bat has gone cold over his past 10 games. Barrero, meanwhile, is regarded as one of the game’s top overall prospects, ranking 15th on Baseball America’s midseason Top 100. He’ll allow Farmer to return to a utility role and bounce around the diamond.

Even for those who’d argue that outfield is still a bigger need given Farmer’s play over the past six weeks, the simple fact is that Barrero has outperformed Senzel in Louisville. Senzel is hitting .286/.316/.429 in 10 games since setting out on his rehab assignment, while Barrero has turned in a .303/.378/.532 batting line on the season. Since the calendar flipped to August, he’s posted an excellent .292/.358/.625 slash. Given their status as the top threat to the Padres’ hold on the second Wild Card spot, the Reds are understandably going with the more productive of the two potential replacement options for Winker. Senzel still figures to return before long — barring a setback — but Barrero has earned the spot for now.

This will be the second big league look for Barrero, who went by Jose Garcia after he initially signed but adopted his mother’s last name as a tribute to her after she passed away earlier this season. Barrero went 13-for-67 without an extra-base hit in 68 plate appearances for the Reds during the 2020 shortened season, although some struggles were to be expected after he made the jump from A-ball to the Majors due to the lack of a minor league season last summer. Now, with some additional seasoning under his belt, the Reds will get a better look at a player whom they hope can emerge as their shortstop of the future.

Barrero accrued 92 days of Major League service time during the 2020 season — service time was prorated last year — and would need another 80 days to reach a full year. There are only 49 days left on the 2021 schedule, so he can’t reach that threshold, though if he’s in the big leagues to stay he’ll quite likely qualify as a Super Two player now (assuming the current Super Two and arbitration systems remain in place in the next collective bargaining agreement). As it stands, he’d be controllable via arbitration all the way through the 2027 season.

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