Joey Votto works out, but still not ready to return

Joey Votto went down almost a month ago with a quad injury, and since then the Cincinnati Reds have managed to keep themselves afloat with a 9-9 record, but staying alive just isn’t good enough in the tough National League Central division.

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The Milwaukee Brewers lead the way in the Central with a 35-25 record that’s second only to the San Francisco Giants in the National League. The Reds, meanwhile are just 27-31, four games under .500, in fourth place in the division, and seven games back of the Brewers.

It’s not looking good for the Reds, and they’ll need to turn things around quickly if they want to make a return to the postseason. There’s still plenty of time, as we’re just two months into the season, but August and September are going to be here before we know it, and if you’re still seven back by then it’s all over.

The good news for the Reds is that their slugging first baseman has started to work out as he looks to rejoin the team. The bad news is that he still isn’t ready to do so.

From Hardball Talk via The Cincinnati Enquirer

"However, manager Bryan Price indicated to John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer that there’s no timetable yet for Votto’s return from the disabled list and there are still hurdles to get past before a minor-league rehab assignment can be considered:"

"“He looked strong, but he hasn’t had a huge workload offensively. It’s not like he’s been able to take regular swings off live pitching for a while. … That’s why it seemed to make more sense to bring him to the ballpark and work out with the club for a few days and be able to do baseball activity before deciding the next move.”"

It seems like Votto is at least a couple weeks away still, and that’s bad news for the Reds. They’re going to have to start doing more than just hovering around .500 until Votto returns.