Reds' Nick Senzel suffers season-ending toe fracture

Reds center fielder Nick Senzel fractured a toe in his left foot during tonight’s loss to the Red Sox, he informed reporters, via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The injury, suffered when he collided with the outfield wall, brings a premature end to his 2022 season.

The Reds have long since been out of the playoff picture, but it’s obviously not ideal to lose Senzel to another injured list stint. It’s unfortunately been a common occurrence for the former No. 2 overall pick. Senzel spent time on the COVID-19 list earlier this year, and he lost good chunks of the 2020 and ’21 seasons to physical maladies. He appeared in only 59 combined games over the prior two seasons, but he nevertheless started as Cincinnati’s Opening Day center fielder for the third straight year.

Senzel did manage a career-high 420 plate appearances over 110 games this year. The results, however, have been disappointing. He hit .231/.297/.306, connecting on just five home runs. While he struck out in only 18.1% of his plate appearances, he’s not drawn many walks and has gotten subpar results on batted balls. Senzel has just over 1,000 plate appearances as a major leaguer and carried a .240/.304/.360 line into play Tuesday night.

It’s theoretically possible this injury marks an end to Senzel’s time in Cincinnati. He’s arbitration-eligible through 2025, but he could be a non-tender candidate after another below-average campaign. He’ll be due only a modest raise on this year’s $1.25M salary, and the Reds are likely to be in for another non-competitive season in 2023. The front office could use that as justification to give the former top prospect another opportunity to try to cement himself as a regular, but it’s fair to wonder whether they may look outside the organization for center field help this winter. Cincinnati has gotten just a .230/.293/.332 line out of the position on the season. That’s 25th among the league’s 30 teams by measure of wRC+, topping only the Astros, Phillies, Rockies, A’s and Guardians.