Nick Castellanos has a fractured wrist, and the Reds are in a wheelbarrow of trouble

Nick Castellanos took a pitch to the wrist at the dawn of the series against the Milwaukee Brewers, and has been mostly sidelined since. It’s no coincidence that the Cincinnati Reds have gone sideways since then, either, seeing as Nick has been their most consistent player throughout the season.

Hell, were it not his right (throwing) wrist, it might even been worth the Reds while to try him as a reliever while he recovers.

Recovers is the key word here, of course. Seeing as it’s been five games since the injury happened and he’s not started a game since then, it’s somewhat remarkable that we just found out this evening via Nick himself that he’s got a micro fracture in said wrist, putting the timetable for his return in a very nebulous region at a very turbulent time.

CBS reporter Cara Korte relayed the news on Twitter after watching Nick speak to Chris Rose on a Jomboy Media instagram live session.

So, there’s that icing on the cake these Reds have baked, fresh off losing 5 of 6 to open the second half of the season and slipping ever further down the pecking order in the NL playoff push. Considering Nick Senzel, Mike Moustakas, and the bullpen’s Three Musketeers are all injured and the team never solved the shortstop issue, that would certainly appear to put a lot on the plate of the front office with just 10 days left until the trade deadline.

For now, though, it would appear we’ll likely see a lot more of Aristides Aquino and Shogo Akiyama, who should at least be some competent replacements (as replacement players go). Hopefully though, it’ll just be a mere matter of days until the Reds get their biggest bopper back in the lineup, since a) they’ve already been playing shorthanded and b) that whole ‘playoffs’ thing I mentioned a minute ago.