Price hopes banged up Reds can return to field

CINCINNATI — For Reds manager Bryan Price, it would be easy to go ahead and shut down the likes of Billy Hamilton, Zack Cozart and Homer Bailey due to their lingering injuries. There’s not much to gain.

Hamilton hasn’t played since Sept. 4 with a strained oblique, an injury that often costs players a month or more; Cozart has been dealing with lingering knee problems and hasn’t played since Sept. 10; and Bailey hasn’t pitched since Aug. 28 as he’s dealt with right bicep soreness after just six starts in his return from Tommy John surgery.

“That’s the easiest thing in the world is to shut everyone down,” Price said. “However, that’s not a culture that we really want to build here. … We want guys to fight to get back on the field. That’s what we have to have here. And unless these guys are deemed incapable of playing, they should be working hard to get back on the field, and I think they are.”

Price acknowledged that there is a lot more to lose than there is to gain from bringing the players back this close to the end of the season. And while the team won’t rush any of them back, he feels it’s important for …

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