Jesse Winker was removed from the Louisville Bats game over the weekend. He then didn’t play yesterday. After the game we would find out why. Steve Bittenbender of the Louisville Courier-Journal had this buried at the bottom of an article earlier this morning:
DeShields said Bats outfielder Jesse Winker, who left Sunday’s game early and did not play Monday, had an MRI on his right wrist. The manager did not say what the test showed, but he added that the Reds’ prospect had trouble holding the bat and is day-to-day.
The good news is that Winker is day-to-day. That’s telling us that whatever it is that they saw in the MRI revealed that it wasn’t anything serious. On the flip side, it’s never good that a guy isn’t able to hold a bat.
The Bats outfielder had been hitting well over the previous two weeks before being removed from the game over the weekend. In 67 plate appearances Jesse Winker was hitting .351/.418/.456 with six doubles and eight walks.
His power for the season has been down, particularly his home run power. He’s hit just two home runs this season, both coming within days of each other at the end of April. In May there was a three week stretch where he had just one extra-base hit, a double, before doubling twice in the final week.
Scott Schebler is turning it around
Scott Schebler didn’t get much playing time while he was up with the Reds to begin the year. When he was eventually sent down to Louisville he noted that he was looking forward to playing every day. It took him a few days to get back into the swing of things, he went just 2-17 in his first five games. But since then he’s been hitting the cover off of the ball for the Bats. Since May 15th, a span of 116 plate appearances, the outfielder has hit .308/.345/.551 with seven doubles, two triples and five home runs over 27 games.