Brandon Phillips Could Be Back Next Homestand

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Brandon Phillips' left thumb has healed well enough to take batting practice.  He has been taking ground balls for more than a week.

Unless he has a setback, he could join the Reds at the end of the upcoming road trip in St. Louis or when the Reds return home on August 21 against Atlanta.

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"He is going to have a couple more workout days and if everything goes we'll,get him into some minor league games," Bryan Price said. "Then it will be a game-by-game evaluation He need at least a handful of games for us to assess.  If all goes well he could play in a game Friday at either Louisville or Dayton."

 

Phillips sprained his left thumb trying to make a diving stop of a ground ball on July 10 against the Chicago Cubs.  He had surgery the next day and was expected to miss six to eight weeks.

 

"Brandon loves to play," Price said. "I won't say he rushed his return but he took all of the steps as quickly as he could."

 

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Phillips has been out long enough that he will need some at-bats to recover his timing.

"Repetitions are foo but we also want him back.  We have to marry those two things," Price said.
"We can't give him a full spring but we at least want to give him a few games to get his timing back. Potentially we could have him back near the end of this road trip or when we get back."

Price can see light at the end of Joey Votto's tunnel, too.

"I don't like to put too much out there but I could see him starting baseball activities in the next two weeks or week and a half," Price said.

"Ondrusek wiil go pitch on Friday and could join us in St. Louis."