Gennett's shoulder MRI reveals positive news

CINCINNATI -- Scooter Gennett was not back starting at second base for the Reds yet on Tuesday, but he was pleased to know he shouldn't be out very long. The results on Gennett's MRI exam taken on Monday came back with a positive outcome.
"There's definitely some inflammation in there, but nothing serious. It was good news for the most part," said Gennett, who was the designated hitter at Minnesota on Sunday and used as a pinch-hitter vs. the Brewers on Monday.
Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman planned on giving Gennett a couple of more days to let his shoulder improve.
"There'll be a strong temptation to hold him out [Wednesday] with the off-day Thursday," Riggleman said. "That would be the likelihood. If he just somehow came on and said, 'I feel great,' he'd be in there. But I don't think it will go that way."
Gennett, who turned 28 on Tuesday, considered trying a cortisone shot to get some relief but is holding off for the moment.
"I think a few days off from throwing will really help and then a nice off day [Thursday]," he said. "I'll take advantage of that and Friday I should be good to go."

Gennett came into the day batting .298/.344/.412 with two home runs and 14 RBIs. He could definitely be seen favoring his shoulder on throws, especially as he dropped to a lower arm angle.
It did not hurt to swing the bat in the past couple of games.
"I feels, I would say, just kind of weak," Gennett said. "That's why it's important to get all the strengthening stuff done in the training room. I think maybe not as many swings, pregame stuff, to give it time to rest.
"I'm late on 2-0, 3-1 fastballs, which is usually not my M.O. I usually barrel those up consistently. It seems like I am barreling up the curveballs. It's affecting my timing. Who knows? Maybe that will come back to my advantage later in the season."
Four-man outfield rotation remains for now
Although Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton struggled mightily at the plate during March and April -- batting .172 with a .280 on-base percentage over the first 28 games -- Riggleman is hopeful he will find his way to improvement at the plate.
"He's a valuable guy when he's not hitting," Riggleman said. "Obviously, there's a huge difference when he is. We've all seen him have those times where he's on-base at a .350-clip for a period of time and scoring runs and creating havoc out there. When he's not, he's still the best outfield defender in the league, I think."

For the time being, Riggleman will continue with the four-man outfield rotation of Hamilton, Scott Schebler, Jesse Winker and Adam Duvall.
"I think the message that came from the front office to Bryan [Price, the former manager] and to the outfielders is we're going to have a four-man rotation and it will work itself out eventually or not. If you're all doing so well, we'll just continue it and everybody will be very fresh at the end of the year. I don't really want to change that up -- it'll look like we gave up on our message too quickly, but there will come a time where -- I hate to use Billy as an example -- but anybody, if you play for long enough and you are just struggling, your role changes."
Riggleman felt that Hamilton's defense does make it harder to not use him.
"It seems every time, if he didn't play for a day or something, a ball would get hit and we'd feel that no matter who else was out there, Billy would have had that ball," he said. "Sometimes it turns into runs."