The Cincinnati Reds are doing well at the catcher position without Tyler Stephenson as both Jose Trevino and Austin Wynns have filled in. But as the old saying goes – guys play to the back of their baseball card in the long run and the back of Stephenson’s baseball card looks a lot better than the back of the cards of the other two when it comes to hitting.
Stephenson hasn’t yet played this season after suffering an oblique strain in the middle of spring training. Healthy now, he’s been rehabbing with the Triple-A Louisville Bats this week. They were rained out two days in a row, but played a doubleheader on Saturday and Stephenson served as the designated hitter in both contests. He’s expected to be behind the plate on Sunday for the Bats.
So far with Louisville, Tyler Stephenson has gone 2-13 with a double, a walk, and five strikeouts. He’s put the ball in play eight time. His double has had his top exit velocity at 96.2 MPH. His single only came off the bat at 69.0 MPH. He did have a foul ball with an an exit velo of 105.3 MPH, and while it had home run distance at 374 feet, it couldn’t stay fair.
As things tend to go with big league rehabbers – it’s not so much about the stats they put up. It’s about if they are getting ready to help out the big league club. For Stephenson that could be something as simple as getting his timing at the plate in the right place. The Reds plan is for him to catch on Sunday and then see where things are and make a decision at that point in time. Cincinnati opens up a home stand on Monday against St. Louis. Louisville will have Monday off before starting a 6-game series on the road against Memphis.
Sam Moll pitches again
Stephenson isn’t the only Red in Louisville. Left-handed reliever Sam Moll took the mound in the first game of the Bats doubleheader on Saturday. It was his second outing with them. The first game went a bit better than the one on Saturday where he took the loss after allowing a run on two hits and a walk in an inning of work.
Moll did have six swings and misses out of 10 total swings against him on the day. He’s averaged 94.3 MPH on his fastball in his two outings.
Wade Miley gets back on the mound
The rehab process is a bit different for Wade Miley. He’s on a minor league contract, unlike Moll and Stephenson. And he’s coming off of a bigger injury as he’s returning from a hybrid Tommy John surgery (TLDR: A regular UCL replacement, but also with a sort of brace in his elbow, too). It hasn’t quite been a year since he had the operation.
On Tuesday he made his first appearance since the surgery and things didn’t go well from a performance standpoint that day in Dayton. He allowed six runs on nine hits in 2.1 innings pitched. He would also hit a batter in his outing. Miley threw 49 pitches and had 33 strikes, sitting in the 87-89 MPH range with his fastball and touching 90.
His second start will come later today in Dayton. The Dragons are scheduled to take the field at 1:05pm ET.
