Tyler Stephenson’s season may have taken an ominous turn Thursday, and it came at a time when every Reds appearance carries a little extra weight.
The Cincinnati catcher left the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers after coming up limping on a single to right field. With the season nearly over, that exit opens the door to a brutal possibility: this could have been his last game in a Reds uniform.
Whether that ends up being true depends on how serious the injury is, but hamstring issues don’t tend to disappear fast. Stephenson is scheduled to hit free agency after the season, so even without the injury, his future in Cincinnati was already unsettled.
Before Thursday’s game, Stephenson had put together a .259/.337/.424 line with 78 home runs across seven seasons with the Reds. He’s also posted a 2.5 bWAR this year, the best mark of his career.
Cincinnati’s postseason hopes are already gone, which makes the calculus pretty simple if Stephenson needs time to recover. There’s no real incentive to rush him back just to collect a few more late-season at-bats.
His uncertain finish also puts a sharper spotlight on a decision the Reds made at the trade deadline. They kept Stephenson instead of moving him, even though he was apparently convinced he was going to be dealt. On deadline day, he and his wife even visited some of their favorite spots around the city so they could take them in one last time.
If Stephenson leaves in free agency and the Reds get nothing back, it would be another costly miss for the front office. They could have traded him in July, added an asset, and still tried to bring him back later.
Either way, his situation was always going to be one of the main Reds storylines this offseason. Cincinnati now has to decide whether to bring him back, and Stephenson will get the chance to test the market.
The Reds’ afternoon ended with a loss to the Dodgers in the series finale, and Elly De La Cruz’s 23-game on-base streak also came to an end.
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