Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds have sent catcher Jose Trevino on a rehab assignment. Later today he will join the High-A Dayton Dragons. Trevino, who has been out since April 8th, though he last played on April 4th, which was just his third game of the season.
The backup catcher has been dealing with a thoracic spine strain. He got an epidural shortly after being placed on the injured list and told Jim Day of RedsTV that he began to feel better after that. Over the last week and a half he’s been seen on the field before games catching the live batting practice thrown by Nick Lodolo, who is also working his way back from an injury and is expected to pitch a rehab game on Sunday in Dayton.
Trevino will join Dayton tonight and is expected to catch five innings of the game. If he comes out of the other side of that game just fine he is then expected to re-join the team on Sunday according to Reds manager Terry Francona who spoke about the situation earlier this week with reporters.
Checking in on JJ Bleday
Over the offseason the Reds signed JJ Bleday. He was coming off of a down year after he had a breakout season in 2024. Bleday didn’t make the team out of spring training despite hitting .317/.364/.683 with more than half of his hits in Arizona being extra-base hits. Cincinnati sent him to Triple-A and not only has he hit better than he did in spring training, but he’s hitting much better.
Bleday went 0-4 with two strikeouts in the first game of the season for the Bats. He’s played in 22 games since then and been on base in all of them. Through the first 23 games of the season with Louisville the outfielder has hit .345/.461/.667 with seven doubles, a triple, five home runs, 17 walks, and 23 strikeouts.
The offense has been struggling in the big leagues, though it has been a little better over the last two weeks or so. Cincinnati has already tried making one change, optioning Noelvi Marte to the minors and bringing up Rece Hinds. He’s also struggled so far in his limited action this season. He will likely get a bit of time to see what happens, but if Bleday keeps his OPS over 1.100 and Hinds doesn’t get his bat going, there may be another option for the club to look at.