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It appears that the Cincinnati Reds will be getting one slugging left-handed hitter back while losing another for at least 10 more days.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Votto to DL, retro to 5/16, Bruce reinstated from disabled list.</p>— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/statuses/469197393905614848">May 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Jay Bruce has quite speedily recovered from his meniscus surgery, and while he's not in today's lineup in Washington, it appears he'll be ready to return to the lineup after Thursday's off-day. Joey Votto, on the other hand, has been dealing with a quad issue on the same leg that required a pair of knee surgeries in 2012, and while his initial diagnosis didn't seem to call for much alarm, it appears the team is ready to admit that he won't be ready to play for at least another 10 days. Since he's been sidelined for 5 days (during which time the Reds have played a man short on the 25-man roster), he'll be eligibile to come off the DL on May 31st.
That, of course, means he'll miss the Memorial Day weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals in Cincinnati as well as the West Coast series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is an MVP-sized bummer.
The Reds will hope that the knee issue Bruce attempted to play through during the early part of the season was the onus behind his career-low slugging percentage and that the nice, shiny, fresh meniscus he's operating on can help catapult both his and the team's offense back into gear. Bruce's walk rate has been stellar in limited time in 2014, but he was hitting just .216/.352/.363 before hitting the DL.
At least we'll get some of May Bruce, after all.
