Joey Votto to miss start of Reds' Cactus League games

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The Reds will start their 2015 Cactus League season without Joey Votto in the starting lineup.

Newcomer Josh Satin will start at first base, hitting ninth, instead of Votto, who missed 100 games a year ago with a knee injury. Votto is not up to "game speed" yet, Reds manager Bryan Price said on Monday.

Votto said after Monday's workout that he's feeling good and expects to be in the lineup soon.

"I feel really, really good. I'm surprised at how good I feel this early," Votto said. "I feel like I'm trending toward being able to play games here in the not too distant future. I do feel like I need a little more time, but the time is not a byproduct of avoiding games or not being ready when I need to be ready. It's just to make sure that after taking eight months, 10 months, however long off of baseball, I have to play the game a little bit more to get ready to get the volume in and get the reps it."

Price said Votto hasn't participated in all of the team's field drills, but doesn't expect the star first baseman to miss any significant time. There has been no decision yet on when Votto will begin playing in exhibition games, Price said.

"Those little things, I'm starting to get to the point where those, I'll be able to join in on and really be a part of nearly everything," Votto said.

The Reds start the Cactus League season on Tuesday with the first of three games against Cleveland in three days at Goodyear Ballpark. We already knew Jason Marquis will be on the mound for the Reds, but the rest of the lineup was posted on Monday.

Here's the lineup (with backups in parenthesis) for Monday's game at 3:05 p.m.:

1. Billy Hamilton CF (Skip Schumaker)

2. Brandon Phillips 2B (Irving Falu)

3. Todd Frazier 3B (Kristopher Negron)

4. Devin Mesoraco C (Kyle Skipworth)

5. Marlon Byrd LF (Jesse Winker)

6. Jay Bruce RF (Brennan Boesch)

7. Zack Cozart SS (Eugenio Suarez)

8. Donald Lutz DH (Kyle Waldrop)

9. Josh Satin 1B (Chris Dominguez)

Reds manager Bryan Price said Sunday that his lineups in spring won't necessarily reflect the regular-season lineup as he tries to ease his regulars into spring play.

"The thing about spring training, of course, is I don't want to have our lineup together every day," Price said Sunday. "Because we're probably going to the neighborhood of every other day and then two out of three as far as getting theses guys ready."

Marquis will start Tuesday's game and is scheduled to be followed by Keyvius Sampson, J.J. Hoover, Nate Adcock, Pedro Villarreal, Daniel Corcino and Matt Magill.

Tuesday's game against the Indians will not be televised by FoxSports Ohio, but the games on Wednesday and Thursday will be shown live by FoxSports Ohio.