A spinning Dallas Keuchel would-be-groundout ran up and in against Joey Votto on Wednesday, the end result being a clip of his left thumb as it rode shotgun on the future Hall of Famer’s bat. X-rays eventually confirmed that Votto had indeed fractured said thumb, hitting pause for “weeks” on what had been something of a resurgent campaign in 2021, one that had seen him return to hitting lasers all over the diamond once again.
It’s the latest in a series of early-season shuffles to the Cincinnati Reds infield. The move of Eugenio Suarez to shortstop on the eve of Opening Day put that process initially in motion, with Mike Moustakas then moving back to 3B from 2B and Jonathan India making his debut to complement it all.