The last two days have been a swift kick in the gut for the Cincinnati Reds and their catching duo. Tyler Stephenson reported some lower back pain two days ago and was removed from the lineup. He went to get an MRI and found that he had an oblique strain. In Friday afternoon’s game the backup catcher to Stephenson, Jose Trevino, got clipped in the hand by a foul tip and had to exit the game. The Reds sent him out to get x-rays.
Mark Sheldon of Reds.com reported just after 8pm ET that the x-rays on Trevino were inconclusive and that he would be evaluated again on Saturday.
The timeline for both guys is very much up in the air. With Stephenson, it sounds like it’s very unlikely that he will be ready to start the season on time. That said, the Reds catcher doesn’t seem to be concerned about anything being a long term issue, telling Sheldon “I’m kind of glad I stopped when I did. But I feel good. I’m not in a bunch of pain. I’m definitely optimistic. It sucks that I maybe will miss the first few weeks.”
With Jose Trevino it’s even more up in the air. If his hand is simply bruised, he may only miss a few days while he recovers. But if there is something broken in his hand, then that certainly changes the timeline to something along the lines of weeks to months depending on how bad things are.
If both guys are going to be out for a while, that leaves the Reds in a tough situation. Stephenson and Trevino are the only two catchers on the 40-man roster. In camp they’ve also had Austin Wynns, who has some experience with most of the pitching staff in at least some limited capacity in his time last year with the team, Will Banfield, and Michael Trautwein.
Among that group only Wynns has played in the big leagues. The 24-year-old has 238 games in his six year big league career and is a career .230/.277/.332 hitter in 673 plate appearances. Last season he played in seven games with the Reds and went 7-19 with four doubles.
Will Banfield spent last year in Triple-A with the Marlins organization. The now 25-year-old hit .247/.297/.379 for Jacksonville in 93 games. In his career he’s hit 226/.278/.375 during his 517 minor league games. Michael Trautwein spent 11 games in Double-A and another 77 in Triple-A last season in the Reds farm system. Between the two stops he hit .195/.281/.347. For his career he’s hit .211/.308/.339 in 230 career games in the minor leagues.
Cincinnati doesn’t exactly have any good options internally if the team is going to be without both Stephenson and Trevino. It may make a lot of sense for the Reds to watch the waiver wire and bring someone else in if they’re going to be without both rather than rely on two of the above-mentioned three to fill in.
