Nationals third baseman Nick Senzel suffered a broken thumb while fielding a ball prior to today’s game, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. It’s unclear how long the injury will keep him out but it’s likely to be at least a few weeks.
It’s an incredibly unfortunate development for a player who has generated such excitement but has been frequently beset by injuries. He was ready for a fresh start in 2024, with the Nationals planning to have him be their everyday third baseman, but he’ll instead be facing yet another injury setback.
Senzel, 29 in June, was selected by the Reds with the second overall pick in 2016 and was considered one of the top prospects in the league as he climbed the minor league ladder. But since he made his major league debut in 2019, he has made frequent trips to the injured list, having never played more than 110 games or taken more than 420 plate appearances in a season. He has undergone surgery to repair a torn finger tendon, to remove bone spurs from his elbow and to address to torn labrum in his shoulder. He’s also missed time due to an ankle sprain and knee injuries, one of them requiring arthroscopic surgery.
Around all those ailments, his performance has been underwhelming. He has hit .239/.302/.369 in his 1,366 major league plate appearances, which translates to a wRC+ of 77. He was non-tendered by the Reds after last year, then the Nats decided to take a chance on him, giving him a $2MM deal.
They were undoubtedly hoping that a change of scenery and some regular playing time could help him get back to the form that made him such a hyped-up prospect. Manager Dave Martinez said way back in December that the club was planning to install him as an everyday third baseman, showing a great deal of faith in Senzel. But instead, he’s now facing yet another injury absence.
For as long as he’s out, the Nats will have to come up with other options. Utility player Ildemaro Vargas is on the roster and could perhaps step in for a time. Jake Alu is also on the 40-man roster and can play multiple positions. Carter Kieboom, like Senzel, is a former first-round pick with a diminished stock in recent years. He’s out of options and was outrighted off the roster a couple of weeks ago. Trey Lipscomb had a hot spring but isn’t on the 40-man either.
How the club proceeds may depend on how long Senzel is expected to be out. But for now, it’s not the start to the 2024 season that Senzel or the Nationals were hoping for.
That poor dude
I like Senzel
I feel bad for Senzel
But like for most people, I find this totally expected to have happened
Now the CIN injury bug is happening to former almost lifetime CIN players.
Frustrating to have happen anytime but especially on Opening Day
Some players keep their thumb inside and outside depending on the type of mitt they have I believe
377 games over 5 seasons is more a pot of coffee than a lifetime player or “almost” lifetime player for any club.
You got any photos of people playing baseball with their thumbs outside their gloves? Have you ever watched baseball or seen a mitt?
Him and Mitch Haniger. Cursed.
Respectively, Nick still has 2.
Not cool, DMC
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I just realized why Seattle brought Haniger back- he starts every at-bat with one ball.
Do they play Nirvana as he walks to the plate?
Well I have sympathy for Senzel, it’s a disservice to Haniger to mention him being cursed to same degree.
Haniger is not just one thing after another, but one of the worst imaginable. Just thinking of having a nut burst is almost inconceivable.
“….nut burst…”. Definitely definitely definitely did not need to:
a) see those two words in order;
b) visualize what they mean quite as graphically as I have.
That was not fair to me, but as to him – only a poet with a tragic heart could pen the words.
Even Shakespeare doth be wincing e’er thus loins
Kids, think twice before you say that you’d give your left test-icle to be a pro ball player.
Should shorten season from 162
Go back to 154
Less chances of injury
But its all about $$$$$$
Money money money
More games = more $
Trash take, didn’t even take one game for him to get hurt. Just eliminate your season and stop watching.
How does shortening season prevent an injury warming up prior to game 1???
Sorry this is just an absurd take on any injury while a player is warming up. Even a shorting a season does not prevent these athletes from training and practicing. Busting a finger warming on ground balls is just getting an unfortunate bad hop.
Johnny, you do realize it’s March, right? This was the very first game. He never even saw the field. He got hurt prior to the game.
You’re going to need to explain to me how shortening the season would prevent this.
On two conditions:
-go to 36 teams, six divisions of six
-a 16-team playoff
Then 154 games make sense due to weather and expanded playoff. Players won’t complain about the schedule making them more money.
@happening
i have a better idea. expand to 84 teams. 58 team playoff. 364 games a year (off for christmas)
I thought you said better.
I remember this one time I didn’t get a joke, too.
I can buy the shortened schedule for weather and playoffs. The avoiding injury thing not so much. These are pro athletes most are at the very least training year round and injuries are unfortunately part of their profession.
@Johnny Utah: They should shorten the offseason, not the season.
If you don’t like baseball, move to Norway.
Actually, they love baseball in Norway.
It’s 12 more games. For a lot of teams they’d see the postseason anyway. Players don’t all play them all.
This guy can’t catch a break
Apparently he catches a lot of breaks.
I wonder how he would’ve done against his former club.
Breaking news: water is wet.
The news about Senzel was indeed breaking news. Water being wet is debatable.
People keep saying the Reds ruined Nick’s career by moving him to the outfield. He got this injury while doing warmups at third base I believe. Some people are just more prone to injury. But I hope Nick can come back and have a nice career.
Those two do not have to be mutually exclusive. The Reds DID ruin this chance at a career. But that doesn’t mean he would have never been injured if they didn’t.
“The Reds did ruin this chance”…Yeah, right. Nick Senzel was on a HOF trajectory before the oldest team in MLB, the Cincinnati Reds, “ruined” him.
He was a top prospect and a #2 overall pick. That doesn’t guarantee anything. But moving him to a position he never played in his life AND giving him the challenge of hitting against the best pitchers in the world for the first time at the exact same time is not a recipe for success.
He actually payed some OF at Tennessee and in High School. So making an assumption that he’s never played it in his life was a bit of a stretch.
As for acclimatimg to the OF, one is transitioning to judging a ball and having more time opposed to an IF being forced to play off quick reactions. It is not the arduous switch you are trying to make it out to be. It also would have minimal if any impact on his hitting. You say it as though they laid the stress of brain surgery upon him.
If you’re a MLB ready caliber player and can’t make the transition to a new position, you’re not a MLB ready player anymore. Tyler Freeman just made a very good transition from SS to CF and is excelling. It’s not baseball, it’s Nick Senzel
@Hiflew how was his career ruined?? Do you know how many players are drafted having played a different position than they ll play in MLB?? It is quite common and transition from IF to OF is much easier than transitioning from OF to IF.
I’m just not buying that it ruined him. Many players just don’t pan out the further they go up the ladder. The notion that it was a position change is absolutely correlation.
It’s completely laughable that people say the Reds ruined his career. It’s funny that he has also been sidelined by vertigo and COVID multiple times. How many of his countless injuries have been related to playing the outfield? Senzel seems like a cool dude but he was very overrated because the Reds were so bad in 2018 and 2019-ish when he was brought up before our farm system got a total makeover.
I think him being a 2nd overall pick just heightened expectations for him. The reality is baseball just don’t pan compared to other major sports.
That whole 1st rd Senzel went in hasn’t really developed a consistent MLB star. Puk,lowe, and Garrett have probably been the most consistent. Lewis won ROY then imploded. Lux, Manning, Monika, Kirilloff, and Lauer all look like they might have a future. Most have had some ups and downs.
“Completely laughable”…These are the same people that blame the police for crime and believe in always blaming others for their own failures.
What a stupid analogy. You are also contradicting yourself – basically what you are saying is Senzel should take no responsibility for his injuries and should blame the Reds even for today’s injury.
I’m interested in the medical theory behind being prone to broken bones.
I, too, am also interested in the medical theory behind being prone to broken bones- because all I can think of is OP must not believe Senzel drinks enough milk.
Appalachian_Outlaw you didn’t pay attention in school did you? It appears Senzel’s bones are as fragile as your understanding of the human body
“Medical theory behind”…He’s brittle. You’re welcome.
In a previous profession, I used to sell a machine that used X-rays to measure bone density. Different folks have different bone composition. Diet, genetics, amount of time you are on your feet. Bones are a living thing.
@BlueSkies alit of people have different bone strength and density. Even if he or anyone else had not broken finger on a bad hop like that, they’d at least severely jamn and bruise their finger/hand. It would by all means still impact ability to grip a bat and hit. They’d likely still be hitting IL just for a shorter stint.
The problem with all these theories is they don’t take into account that baseball is an impact sport. If a fastball hits you it won’t be your bone density that decides if a bone breaks, it will be the baseball, how hard it was thrown, and where on your body you get hit. All random, as are most game playing injuries. Hey, maybe some people are just prone to bad luck. I guess that explains everything!
Nope. An individuals bone characteristics matter when it comes to the degree of injury created by an impact. It’s not a theory. It’s fact. Proven medical science.
Obviously where the ball hits you and how hard is a factor. However the strength of everyone’s bones is not universally equal. Either is the makeup of one’s body some have more fat or muscle and if hit in right area all these things become factors. That is not theory that is a fact.
Regardless though for the most part anyone hit with a baseball moving at high speed it is going to cause some harm and depending on where they are hit there is a potential for serious injury. It’s part of the game.
Yeah I’m not sure how one can even argue this. Try telling a person with osteoporosis that bone density is a theory.
@Blue I don’t think many would deny baseball is an impact sport. And ultimately yes the baseball is the catalyst for injury. Ones body composition factors into the significance of injury.
I was in a no fault car accident 10 days ago. Whacking the steering wheel broke my jaw. Completely random. Definitely bad luck. Doesn’t change the fact that a different jaw would have handled the impact differently.
Completely unmeasurable by anyone watching baseball. And have you ever, even once, heard of a team measuring a player’s bone density? And be serious here, how common is osteoporosis among young athletes? The reality is by far the determining factors in serious impact injury are completely random. The reason a player breaks a bone in their hand by getting hit by a fastball isn’t because he’s got weak bones it’s because he got hit in the hand by a fastball. Still true if it happens to him more than once. Not everything has a deterministic cause. Some events are just bad luck.
A jaw not made of human bone?
Sorry about your accident!
Are you really trying to say all humans have the same bone strength and that bone density is not something that exists??
Nobody is saying it is the primary factor. Obviously getting hit by the ball is. But what is a fracture or break for one person is not necessarily going to be a a fracture or break for another.
Foppert..yep. I have neuropathy in my left foot left by a baseball injury to my spine. I can break a toe by simply stubbing it, or jumping on the foot from any height. It’s brittle from the nerve damage and lack of circulation.
Yeah, lots of people are in effect saying it’s the primary factor by calling players “injury prone” who were really only unlucky enough to take impacts in bad places that would hurt anyone. In fact most of the discussion about injuries on these boards completely discounts their causes. Some are chronic conditions but the vast majority are random. It’s always a little weird to be having to explain the concept of probabilities to baseball fans, when the entire game is based on it.
Thanks Blue. All good. Solid food is overrated anyway.
Bones aren’t static in people. Diseases, conditions or otherwise. Their strength is influenced by genetics, diet and lifestyle. You run 100 ball players through Senzels scenario and you are getting a multitude of results. Some are breaking different, some are worse, some are less severe, some are just bruising.
Adios. I have milk to drink through a straw.
Through a straw? That sucks!
(Sorry couldn’t resist!) 🙂
BlueSkys. Neuropathy isn’t a theory. I suffer from nerve damage caused by a disc injury in baseball. I have permanent nerve damage in my foot. The lack of nerve influence causes a lack of circulation in the foot leaving it brittle. I stunned by toe last week WITH shoes on on a cardboard box…and broke my toe. I’ve jumped down off ledges and shattered the foot. You just deal.
Fingers and feet are prone to Neuropathy from spinal injury.
But as you just said, your neuropathy was caused by the injury, not the other way around. Nobody can claim that any given broken bone injury is caused by a chronic condition unless they are aware of a chronic condition. The assumption we hear all the time is any player who suffers more than one impact injury is prone to it, when the far more likely explanation is that they were simply unlucky. This matters most when fans question a signing of a supposedly “injury prone” player. The teams have access to player’s medicals. They know the difference between a player who has a chronic medical condition or just bad luck.
That sounds like no fun at all, Elvis. Keep dealing. All the best.
Blueskys. We might not be aware of past injuries that are contributing to the players that we consider brittle.
Sure things are bad luck. But teams also know and are managing the health issues with some usually wonderful medical staffs.
But I also see people who will claim someone is chronically imputed when they’ve been unlucky getting drilled by a ball.
I don’t know Senzels case but he might have things he’s dealing with. Hands and feet are weird
Foppert…thanks, I appreciate it. Oh you just deal. Try to be smart about it. Disc injury led to two major back surgeries. Now it’s just the reality of that left foot and dealing with the numbness and potential if shattering something. Basically not doing anything ridiculous rhat I shouldn’t.
This dude is cursed.
Cursed with $13 million in career earnings so far.
Maybe we’ll get to see Brady House sooner than later.
Brady House should be ready Opening Day 2025, but not now
I was hoping Senzel would have a good year with a change of scenery . Unbelievable he gets injured again before the game .. almost seems like it couldn’t happen to him again and it does. Unbelievable ==
Call up Juan Yepez.
Not on 40
The first day? He’s gotta be pissed!
Not even in his first game. Before it.
Senzel has to be the most brittle player of all. Can’t avoid injuries.
Of course he did……
Wow. Such talent lost….
Interestingly enough, the top WAR player in that round just signed a 10 year contract and the Dodgers have 2 of the top four WAR picks from that round in their starting lineup for yesterday’s opener.