McCoy: Injuries piling up as Reds face Cards

Team makes blizzard of roster moves prior to series opener to address aches, pains, pulls, strains and concussions.

It would have been CINCINNATI — apropos for David Bell to show up at Thursday’s pregame media scrum wearing a doctor’s smock and a stethoscope.

For 25 minutes, all the Reds manager talked about were medical issues.

The Reds made a blizzard of transactions before the game to cover aches, pains, pulls, strains and concus- sions.

To wit: catcher

Cur tC as ali was placed on the

10-day injured list with a right knee sprain. Catcher

Kyle Farmer was placed on the seven-day concussion list. Relief pitcher David Hernandez was placed on the 10-day injured list with shoulder fatigue.

To cover the losses, the Reds recalled outfielder Josh Van Meter, pitcher Lucas Sims and signed catcher Ryan Lavarnway.

In addition, both Nick Senzel and Derek Dietrich were out of the lineup for the series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. Senzel has a mild hamstring issue and Dietrich has a sore knee after getting hit with a pitch for the 21st time this season.

Can you say M*A*S*H unit? Regular catcher Tucker Barnhart is still at least two weeks away from scrambling off the injury list. So, all three catchers that left spring camp on the Reds 25-man roster are hog-tied on the IL.

The Reds called up catcher Juan Graterol from Class AAA Louisville earlier this week and plopped him immediately into the lineup. He was in spring camp with the Reds.

Not so, Ryan Larvarnway. He was with the Yankees, playing at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and was released Wednesday night. The Reds immediately signed him.