Jesse Winker has been activated from the disabled list by the Louisville Bats. The outfielder went on the disabled list a month-and-a-day ago with a wrist injury. The move came a day after he went 0-1 against the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Last week the Cincinnati Reds sent Winker to Arizona to begin a rehab assignment with the rookie level Arizona League Reds at their Goodyear complex. He played in four games, hitting .462/.533/.923 with two home runs, two walks and four strikeouts in 15 plate appearances.

Prior to heading to the disabled list, Jesse Winker had been having a strange season. His batting average, on-base percentage, walk rate and strikeout rate were all in line, or better than we had seen from him in past years. He was hitting .286 with a .381 on-base percentage. His walk rate was just over 13% and he was showing a career best strikeout rate that was also just over 13%.

It’s been the power output that has made the 2016 season a bit of an interesting one for the 2012 draft pick. Winker had just 10 doubles and two home runs in 55 games played for the Bats. That’s led to a .367 slugging percentage for the left handed hitter. How long the wrist has been an issue, I don’t know, but it could have been effecting his power output. At the same time, his groundball rate has been very high this season and that’s also a big part of the reason his power output is down some this year.

The fact that he went out to Arizona and smacked two home runs in four games is a good sign, even if the air is a little bit thin out there and he was facing rookie ball pitching. Last year he had a similar first half and really turned things around in the second half. Hopefully he’s able to do a similar thing for Louisville in 2016.

The Bats also made two other roster moves on the day. Right handed pitcher Dayan Diaz was activated from the temporarily inactive list. Brandon Allen was placed on the disabled list, retroactively to July 11th.