Eugenio Suarez to begin rehab assignment Tuesday in Louisville

In between tonight’s game and last Monday’s tilt with the Brewers (and nearly every other game before that) the Reds offense has been basically non-existent.

For instance, before tonight’s game, Billy Hamilton had the same amount of home runs as Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, Jose Peraza, Jesse Winker, and Scott Schebler combined. Even after Schebler’s dinger to straight away center tonight, those players all have exactly one more home run than Hamilton.

Billy Hamilton has 18 home runs in his career. Joey Votto, Jose Peraza, Jesse Winker, and Scott Schebler combined for 105 home runs just last season.

It surely helped getting Schebler back from the disabled list and the Reds might be getting another large contributor back sooner than they would’ve initially imagined.

Reds.com beat writer Mark Sheldon is reporting tonight that Eugenio Suarez will begin his rehab assignment on Tuesday with Louisville.

Suarez has been out of action since getting hit by a pitch on the hand back on April 7th. At the time, it was expected that Suarez could be out upwards of six weeks before even beginning a rehab assignment, but it seems like he’s dodged the worst of the injury.

Prior to Cliff Pennington’s hit and walk tonight, Reds 3B were hitting .109 with (of course) zero home runs and one RBI. Eugenio Suarez, despite having only received 33 PAs on the season, still paces all Reds batters with 0.6 fWAR.

The Reds need that production back, and despite the result today, they need it badly.

Just think; a Reds lineup featuring Jesse Winker and his OBP, a healthy Suarez and Schebler, along with the decent start by Tucker Barnhart, an awoken Joey Votto (he’s gotten on base 7 times in the last two games), and Billy Hamilton that might actually be willing to take a walk...

This Reds offense might not be all that bad...

Assuming all goes well, Eugenio could be back with the Reds as soon as this weekend.

This Reds start has been the absolute worst outcome, but one by one, they might be getting guys back.

Go Reds.