Reds' Nick Senzel: Could return during road trip
Senzel (undisclosed) could join the Reds for this week's road-trip stops in Chicago or St. Louis, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports. "It's still a build-up process for Nick. It takes time to be able to jump into this part of the season," manager David Bell said Sunday. "We have to make sure his body is completely built up. If not, you can really expose a player to an injury. We've seen it a lot this year already. We have to do what's best for Nick and encourage him to give us the proper feedback so that we can work together and get him back at the right time."
The Reds pulled Senzel from a victory line Aug. 16 and placed him on the injured list Aug. 19, right before they resumed play following a series of postponements. Senzel said on Instagram last week that he was "one step closer to returning to the field" and has reportedly been working out at the team's alternate training site. Bell makes a fair point about not wanting to rush Senzel, a player with a fairly lengthy injury history at 25 years old. That being said, Cincinnati's playoff hopes are still alive -- if barely -- and the team could always ease Senzel back into action by deploying him off the bench initially.
