Reds to place Eugenio Suarez on the 10-day injured list

Eugenio Suarez was originally in the starting lineup for Friday night’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers. He was scratched just after 6pm for a 6:40pm start time. Cincinnati wound up winning on a walk-off home run by Nathaniel Lowe – his second home run of the day – and it was Lowe who replaced Suarez in the lineup. For Friday things worked out without having Suarez available. But following the game manager Terry Francona said that during batting practice Suarez felt a little something in his oblique and he went for imaging and has a low-grade strain. While he made it sound like it wasn’t too serious, Francona did note that Suarez was going to wind up on the 10-day injured list.

The move isn’t official yet for Suarez, so the corresponding move also isn’t official yet. But it seems highly likely that the move will be to bring up outfielder JJ Bleday from Triple-A. After recording the final out of the 5th inning for Louisville against the Iowa Cubs on Friday night he was due to lead off the top of the 6th inning. Instead he was pinch hit for. No one else was replaced in the game.

Bleday is on the 40-man roster, so he would make sense from the standpoint of not having to clear a spot to add him. And he’s the hottest hitter with Louisville right now, too. He went 0-1 on Friday night with a walk before he exited the game. That walk extended his on-base streak to 23 games. He’s hitting .341/.462/.659 with seven doubles, a triple, a home run, 18 walks, and 23 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances.

We’ll likely have to wait until Saturday afternoon to get the official move announced, but all of the pieces fit together to suggest we know what’s coming down the pipeline before the 7:15pm ET game.