Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds have activated three players from the injured list today. Right-handed reliever Alexis Diaz has been activated from the 15-day injured list. He’s joined by outfielder Austin Hays and infielder Matt McLain, who were on the 10-day injured list. Yesterday saw the team place reliever Sam Moll on the injured list, which left the team’s active roster at 25 players. Today they needed to more spots and those were made by optioning outfielder Jacob Hurtubise and infielder Noelvi Marte to Triple-A Louisville.
When Alexis Diaz takes the mound it will be the first time this regular season that he’s done so. He tweaked his hamstring during pitchers fielding practice early in spring training and it led to a late start pitching in games. He was still not quite right with the hamstring injury as spring training came to an end and wound up on the injured list to begin the season. Diaz made four relief appearances on rehab with Triple-A over the last two weeks, including throwing on back-to-back days this past Friday and Saturday.
Austin Hays was one of the Reds bigger acquisitions this offseason. And he came out hitting well in spring training. Over his 16 games he hit .310/.370/.690 while pounding out eight extra-base hits in 46 plate appearances. Coming off of a season where he really struggled as he battled through a kidney infection that caused him all sorts of issues, it was good to see that he was hitting the ball with plenty of authority. But in his final game in Arizona he tweaked his calf muscle and was placed on the injured list. Last week he spent a few days with Triple-A Louisville getting some in-game at-bats on a rehab assignment to get ready to join the Reds.
Matt McLain was active to begin the season. Over the first eight games he hit three home runs and scored seven runs for Cincinnati. But he’s missed the last 10 days with a hamstring strain.
Jacob Hurtubise made the team out of spring training. He’s played in nine of the Reds 16 games this year, but only one of those games saw him start. The outfielder has mostly come off of the bench as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement (or both) and has gone 1-7 with a walk and he’s been hit by two pitches.
Noelvi Marte began his season in Triple-A, but he was hitting well (.353/.425/.529) and the Reds needed to make some moves thanks to some injuries and called the 23-year-old up. He only played in three games, going 1-6 with a walk and a steal. He’ll head back to the minor leagues and join Louisville, hopefully picking up where he left off before his call up last week.
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