Organizational Injury Report - 8/12 Ludwick Returns

LF Ryan Ludwick will finally be back in the Reds lineup tonight, August 12, after missing 116-½ games from the shoulder injury he sustained in the first game of the season. Dusty Baker says he will ease Ludwick back into action in the #6 spot in the order to begin with. Ludwick is replacing Derrick Robinson on the roster, and will hopefully be able to provide a boost to the lineup that has been lacking from the right-hand side for months. But considering how bad Ludwick hit during his rehab in both Dayton and Louisville, and how bad he looked in the process, the easing-back phase might last longer than everyone hopes. Presumably, Ludwick will be in some sort of timeshare with Chris Heisey and maybe Xavier Paul as well.

In the past week, Ryan Hanigan and Jonathan Broxton also returned to the lineup after extended stretches on the DL. Broxton returned to action on August 9 after missing 8 weeks with an elbow strain. His performance was encouraging in that his velocity was as good as or even better than usual for the Reds set-up man, hitting 97. Hanigan returned on August 9 from a sprained wrist which held him out for just shy of a month. His return was timely, as Corky Miller was placed on the DL on August 8 for a quad contusion suffered in a home plate collision. Most likely, this is a case of the Reds showing their class and doing solid by Corky, since the DL time allows him to continue earning the MLB minimum salary for an extra 13 days rather than be demoted, as the injury itself probably would not ordinarily call for a DL stint.

Sad news from Mark Sheldon regarding Nick Masset's road to recovery. Masset will have another surgery at some point this week for impingement/thorasic outlet syndrome. On a personal note, shoulder impingement ended my own playing days and is a very painful condition if you are trying to play through it. As Sheldon mentions in his article, there have been recent pitchers to come back successfully from this surgery, but in all likelihood, this effectively ends Masset's tenure with Cincinnati, if not his MLB career. Best of luck to Nick, who has been trying to overcome shoulder problems that will now have sidelined him for well over 2 seasons. Sheldon also mentions in the article that neither Johnny Cueto nor Sean Marshall have resumed throwing, but could begin to do so within the next week or so.

There were no minor league injuries to report on in the previous week, and also of note is that AA Pensacola has still not placed a single player on the DL this year to date. The current state of injuries in the organization can be found here.