{"id":97450,"date":"2025-03-14T13:59:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97450"},"modified":"2025-03-14T13:59:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:59:52","slug":"reds-catcher-tyler-stephenson-injury-opening-day-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/14\/reds-catcher-tyler-stephenson-injury-opening-day-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds Lose Tyler Stephenson to Injured List Ahead of Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cincinnati Reds received a setback on Friday as catcher Tyler Stephenson was placed on the 10-day injured list with a low-grade internal left oblique strain. Manager Terry Francona didn&#8217;t provide a specific timeline for Stephenson&#8217;s return but admitted that he&#8217;s unlikely to be ready for Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a stretch,&#8221; Francona said. &#8220;We really need to stay away from timetables, because we don\u2019t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The news, first reported by MLB.com&#8217;s Mark Sheldon, leaves the Reds with a key hole behind home plate as they prepare to start the season. Stephenson complained of back issues and was scratched from Wednesday&#8217;s game against the Texas Rangers. He went for an MRI Thursday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lkdy6eehdk2j\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiadko52equ64rg6zrdtzmtj5koog6s4fwwku76uhrn5f74hdwmvgy\" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode=\"system\">\n<p lang=\"en\">It\u2019s a low grade left internal oblique strain for Stephenson. Unlikely to be ready for Opening Day, acknowledged Francona.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Sheldon (<a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@msheldon.bsky.social<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw\/post\/3lkdy6eehdk2j?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Tyler Stephenson Has Oblique Injury, To Miss Start of Season<\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"87\" data-end=\"553\">Stephenson, 28, is coming off his most productive season on both sides of the ball. He hit .258 with a .782 OPS, 19 home runs, and 66 RBI over 138 games. He also caught more than 1,000 innings for the first time, solidifying his role as the Reds&#8217; primary catcher. This winter, he <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/13\/expectations-reds-catchers-stephenson-trevino\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">avoided arbitration<\/a> by signing a one-year, $4.9 million deal. A lifetime .267 hitter, he has 50 home runs and 208 RBI in 470 games since the Reds drafted him in 2015.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"555\" data-end=\"937\">With Stephenson sidelined, Jos\u00e9 Trevino steps into the Opening Day catcher role. The Reds acquired the 2022 All-Star from the Yankees in the offseason for reliever Fernando Cruz, valuing his elite defense and strong rapport with pitchers. However, offense remains a question mark. Trevino owns a career .236 batting average with a .637 OPS and 32 home runs over seven seasons. However, his throwing took a dip in 2024. He threw out just 18.6% of base stealers after posting marks of 25.6% and 33.3% in the previous two seasons. However, he remains a plus framer and earns high marks for his ability to block pitches in the dirt.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, journeyman backup Austin Wynns is poised to make the roster as Trevino&#8217;s backup. The 34-year-old spent most of 2024 at Triple-A Louisville but impressed in a brief big-league stint, going 7-for-19 with four doubles in seven games for Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cincinnati Reds received a setback on Friday as catcher Tyler Stephenson was placed on the 10-day injured list with a low-grade internal left oblique strain. Manager Terry Francona didn&#8217;t provide a specific timeline for Stephenson&#8217;s return but admitted that he&#8217;s unlikely to be ready for Opening Day. &#8220;That&#8217;s a stretch,&#8221; Francona said. &#8220;We really [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":97452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1071,35],"tags":[4898,3405],"class_list":["post-97450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-mlb","category-news","tag-jose-trevino","tag-tyler-stephenson"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97454,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97450\/revisions\/97454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}