The Cincinnati Reds made a significant investment in starting pitcher Homer Bailey this off-season, inking him to a six-year, $105 million extension. Considering his age and the quality of his season over the course of the summer, it seemed like a reasonable investment, steep though the price tag was.
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That contract still might be just fine in the long run, but it is safe to say that year one has not ended up how Bailey or the Reds had planned. Bailey’s results were good, but ultimately his season was ended by injury.
On Thursday reports indicated that the 28-year-old starter would undergo surgery on his right forearm to repair an injury that has not yet healed on its own. From C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer:
"Reds starter Homer Bailey will have surgery to repair a tear in the flexor mass tendon of his right forearm on Friday.“The unfortunate thing is we tried the conservative approach with the flexor tendon and unfortunately it’s not healing,” Reds head athletic trainer Paul Lessard said on Thursday. “So the decision was to repair that tendon (surgically). Dr. (Timothy) Kremchek will be doing that tomorrow.”"
A lot of contract situations are in flux for the Reds after the 2015 season; in order to assess the state of the franchise, and in particular the starting rotation, they will want to have Bailey and his big contract back in the mix to start spring training.
Bailey went 9-5 this season with a 3.71 ERA in 145.2 innings of work.
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