Bats' Senzel injured diving for ground ball
Top Reds prospectNick Senzel injured his left shoulder while trying to field a ground ball Saturday and left Triple-A Louisville's game against Toledo in the sixth inning.Playing second base, Senzel dove to his left in an attempt to field a ball off the bat of Mud Hens designated hitter Chad
Top Reds prospect
Playing second base, Senzel dove to his left in an attempt to field a ball off the bat of Mud Hens designated hitter
Louisville manager Dick Schofield told the Blade he does not believe the injury is serious but indicated Senzel might have aggravated prior shoulder discomfort.
"I thought it was his thumb or wrist [when he dove and did not get up]," Schofield said. "But he had dove earlier in the year and tweaked his shoulder a little bit. I believe he's OK. We'll see Sunday."
Senzel likely will get the day off Sunday, according to Schofield, who said he does not anticipate the second overall pick in the 2016 Draft to miss extended time. He added that removing Senzel on Saturday was mostly precautionary.
"If it were serious, we would have taken him to the hospital," Schofield said. "It was precautionary to take him out. If it were 85 degrees, he might have been OK and stayed in, but when it's 45 degrees I thought we should not take a chance."
Senzel played third base exclusively through last season but was used at shortstop during Spring Training and has made 11 starts at second base for the Bats as the Reds try to accelerate his ascension to the Major Leagues.
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Through 18 games and 72 at-bats this season, Senzel has two homers with five RBIs to go with a .264/.346/.431 slash line.
"The most important thing is to make sure we're all convinced that he is ready to be here and playing productively," Reds general manager Dick Williams told MLB.com earlier this month. "A lot goes into that. It's just making sure his confidence is in the right place and the approach we're seeing is right and he is doing it consistently. Bringing a guy like that up, you want him to come and stay. You want it to be more dictated by his performance and confidence as opposed to being dictated by the situation here."
Daren Smith is an editor for MiLB.com.
Chris Bumbaca is a contributor for MiLB.com based in New York. Follow him on Twitter @BOOMbaca.