After just four games in a Cincinnati Reds uniform, Scott Rolen is headed to the disabled list. The Reds put him on the 15-day DL Tuesday afternoon to give him time to recover from a concussion he received from a Jason Marquis fastball just two days after the Reds acquired him at the trade deadline. Rolen has tried to play through the injury twice, but apparently the team and their doctors have decided that the best thing for Rolen is rest. With the Reds well out of contention for 2009, it certainly doesn't make sense for Rolen to try and push himself and risk another head injury while he's recovering from this one. The risk/reward ratio in this scenario skews way too heavily to the wrong side for the Reds and so the decision to put him on the DL here seems like the right one.
Still, this can't be what the Reds wanted to see from Rolen so early into his Cincy tenure. Rolen hasn't played more than 150 games since he played in 154 back in 2003. Since then, he's topped 115 twice (2004 and 2006, with a chance to do it this year depending on how long he misses with this concussion). Getting a concussion from a fastball to the head is a freak thing, but it can have lasting effects, and the last thing the Reds need with Rolen is another potential injury to worry about.
This means that since the Reds acquired Rolen and set their sights on 2010 (Rolen will be a free agent after that season), they've put Rolen on the disabled list and lost Edinson Volquez for most (or all) of 2010. Chances are certainly good that Rolen will recover from this injury without complications (which isn't to say that he'll be free from another unrelated injury), but this can't be how GM Walt Jocketty envisioned things when he traded for Rolen just 12 days ago.
