C. Trent Rosecrans, and Zach Buchanan

Cincinnati

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Jesse Winker is fine, even if he’s not in the lineup on Friday.

Winker, the Reds’ top position prospect, collided with center fielder Jake Cave in Thursday’s game against the Rockies in Scottsdale and left the game early for what manager Bryan Price called precautionary reasons. Winker was originally slated to DH in one of the Reds’ two split-squad games on Friday, but was scratched from the lineup.

Winker said he was “a little banged up in the hip” area.

“I think it’s going to be one of those things that we’ll take day-by-day and see how it is, get it better and get back out there,” Winker said. “It’s nothing serious.”

Reds manager Bryan Price said Winker will miss a couple of days at least, calling the injury a strain of his hip flexor.

Winker took responsibility for the collision, which happened in the fifth inning on a Nolan Arenado fly ball to right-center field. Price and Cave said it was unavoidable, though.

Arenado hit the ball to a spot that neither Cave nor Winker was sure to reach. Cave held off on calling for the ball because he didn’t want Winker to back off and have it fall for a hit. Winker called for it at the last second, allowing Cave to slam on the brakes.

It could have been worse.

“I was actually about to lay out to give some effort and maybe try to make a play, and luckily at the last second Winker said he had it,” Cave said.

Winker did hold onto the ball for the out. Both players finished the inning.

“It's a tough call, but I appreciate that both of those guys really wanted to go out and catch that ball,” Price said.

“You’ve got to go helmet-to-helmet to knock it free from me,” he joked. “It’s one of those things that happen; I was in the wrong because I called it a little late and we just collided."

Winker stayed in the game through the fifth inning but was replaced in the sixth. Cave stayed in the game with the rest of the regulars through the sixth inning.

In seven games this spring, Winker is 5 for 15 at the plate and has played both left and right field for the Reds.