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Alex Reyes To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Cardinals right-hander Alex Reyes is staring down yet another injury-related setback, as he’s scheduled for surgery on his shoulder late this month, tweets Katie Woo of The Athletic. MLB.com’s John Denton first reported that Reyes would require surgery to repair his right shoulder (Twitter link).

Reyes met with renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday, and he confirmed a team recommendation that surgery will be required. The exact nature of the procedure has not yet been announced by the Cardinals. Woo adds that while the surgery is likely to end his season, there’s at least a small chance Reyes will be able to return late in the year.

It’ll be the third major surgery for Reyes in the past five years. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery back in Spring Training of 2019 and has since gone under the knife to repair a torn tendon in his latissimus dorsi muscle. Reyes also missed time with shoulder trouble back in 2020, though he didn’t require surgery at the time.

The expected shoulder procedure, then, is just the latest in a long line of physical ailments that have combined to derail what looked to be one of the sport’s most promising young talents. Reyes, for years, was heralded as a potential ace, frequenting top prospect rankings throughout his minor league tenure. Heading into the 2017 season, Baseball Prospectus ranked him as the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, while Baseball America ranked him fourth and MLB.com ranked him sixth.

At that time, Reyes had barely retained his rookie and prospect status after an electrifying MLB debut in 2016, when he pitched 46 innings of 1.57 ERA ball. However, Reyes had Tommy John surgery before he had the chance to follow up on that debut. That surgery, paired with the previously mentioned lat and shoulder troubles, combined to limit Reyes to just 87 total innings from 2017-20 (big leagues and minors combined). He pitched a career-high 72 1/3 innings for the Cardinals in 2021, all coming as a reliever, leading the team with 29 saves. Reyes punched out more than 30% of his opponents but also issued walks at an untenable 16.4% clip.

The hope heading into the 2022 season was that Reyes, like Jordan Hicks, could potentially be stretched out to either again work as a starter or to provide a multi-inning option in high-leverage spots. This latest bout of shoulder trouble, however, nixed that possibility before it ever even truly began. Now, Reyes’ very future in the organization could be in question.

At 27 years of age (28 in August), Reyes has just 145 Major League innings under his belt. Despite that paltry total, he’ll reach five years of Major League service this season, due largely to the significant amount of time he’s spent on the Major League injured list. He’ll likely add another full season of IL time to that ledger. The Cards will be able to retain him via arbitration this winter, and given that he’s unlikely to pitch at all, he’d likely be in line for a repeat of this year’s $2.9MM salary. It’s a modest sum, but the Cards will still need to determine whether they’ll make that commitment to a player who has averaged 29 innings per year over his first five MLB campaigns.

Alex Reyes Shut Down Due To Shoulder Soreness

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Cardinals right-hander Alex Reyes has yet to pitch this season due to shoulder problems, and it now looks like Reyes could be missing significantly more time.  Manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat) that Reyes was shut down after he experienced some continued soreness in his right shoulder after a throwing session this week.

Reyes had already undergone an MRI, and perhaps ominously, is now looking for a second opinion before deciding on his next course of action.  Marmol described the news as “very” discouraging, and noted that Reyes has “been through a lot…you hope he can make it back.”

Considered one of baseball’s very best prospects during his time in the St. Louis farm system, Reyes’ career has been a series of stops and starts due to injuries.  A Tommy John surgery in 2017 cost Reyes the most time on the injured list, but his shoulder has also been a consistent source of concern for the last few years.

After tossing only 72 2/3 innings from 2016-20, the Cardinals opted to make Reyes a full-time reliever in 2021, and the result was both a healthy and impressive season.  The righty posted a 2.48 ERA and a 30% strikeout rate over 72 1/3 frames as the Cards’ primary closer for much of the year, though Reyes was hampered by walks and home runs.  This included the homer that ended the Cardinals’ season, as Reyes allowed Chris Taylor’s walkoff home run in last year’s NL wild card game.

Reyes received a stem cell injection in March, and after being moved to the 60-day injured list, wasn’t eligible to pitch until after June 8.  It now seems unlikely that he’ll make that target date, and there would seem to be plenty of doubt that Reyes will be able to pitch at all in 2022.

Reyes turns 28 in August, and is earning $2.85MM this season in the second of three arbitration-eligible years.  Should Reyes miss most or all of the 2022 campaign, he would receive only a minuscule raise or his salary would just remain at $2.85MM, which wouldn’t represent a huge financial outlay for St. Louis.  A non-tender can’t be ruled out until we know more about Reyes’ injury status, but given how well Reyes has pitched when healthy, the Cardinals would probably lean towards retaining him to see if he can avoid the IL in 2023.

Cardinals Select Aaron Brooks, Place Alex Reyes On 60-Day Injured List

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The Cardinals have selected right-hander Aaron Brooks to the 40-man roster, the team informed reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). He’ll break camp with the club. To clear roster space, righty Alex Reyes has been placed on the 60-day injured list.

St. Louis signed Brooks to a minor league deal in late January. The 31-year-old had spent the prior two seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization, working out of the Kia Tigers’ rotation. He pitched to a 2.50 ERA in 151 1/3 innings his first year, leading the Tigers to bring him back for another season. Brooks only made 13 starts and tallied 78 frames last season, but he posted a solid 3.35 ERA in that time.

Brooks only struck 20.1% of opposing hitters over that two-year stretch. Yet he virtually never handed out free passes, walking just 4.4% of batters faced. Of most interest to the Cardinals, he induced grounders on more than three quarters of the balls put in play against him in both his KBO seasons. St. Louis has perhaps the game’s top collection of infield defenders (Paul Goldschmidt, Tommy Edman, Paul DeJong and Nolan Arenado), and they’d set out this offseason to target pitchers capable of playing to that strength.

They identified Brooks, despite his 6.49 ERA in 170 2/3 career big league innings. The former ninth-round pick suited up with each of the Royals, A’s and Orioles before heading to South Korea but never found much success. The Cards clearly believe he’s capable of performing better with a strong defense behind him, and he can factor into either the rotation or the bullpen for first-year skipper Oli Marmol. St. Louis will be without Jack Flaherty to open the year, giving Brooks a shot to compete for the final rotation spot behind Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas.

It was also already known they’d be without Reyes in the early going, and he’s now officially going to miss at least the first two months of the season. The hard-throwing reliever received a stem cell injection in his shoulder last week and wasn’t expected to be available until late May or early June. Today’s IL placement rules him out until at least the second week of June.

In addition to the Brooks/Reyes news, St. Louis announced they’ve signed utilityman Cory Spangenberg to a minor league deal. The 31-year-old appeared in every big league season between 2014-19, spending the bulk of that time with the Padres. Like Brooks, he’s coming back to the U.S. after a two-year stint in an Asian league — in his case, Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Spangenberg, a left-handed hitter, has a fair bit of experience at each of second base, third base and left field. He owns a .256/.315/.389 line in just under 1400 MLB plate appearances. He combined for a .257/.330/.463 mark in two seasons with the Seibu Lions and will add some versatile depth to the high minors of the St. Louis system.

Jack Flaherty, Alex Reyes To Begin Season On Injured List

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TODAY: Flaherty discussed his injury situation today with MLB.com’s Joe Trezza and other reporters, noting that the PRP injection wasn’t due to his labrum tear, but rather bursitis.  Flaherty felt that the shoulder issue was brought on by mechanical changes Flaherty made last season, while trying to adjust to his oblique strain.  It appears to be a matter of crossed signals between the righty and the team as to why the Cardinals announced the labrum tear as the cause of the PRP injection, as Flaherty has been dealing with the tear for “a handful of years,” and during the lockout, “it was just hard communication-wise to communicate to [the Cardinals] what was going on” in regards to his shoulder inflammation.

MARCH 18: Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty received a platelet-rich plasma injection to address a small tear in his right shoulder, the team informed reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). He’ll be shut down from throwing for two weeks, at which point the team will reevaluate his status. Flaherty obviously won’t have time to build up arm strength in time for Opening Day, and he’ll begin the season on the injured list.

It isn’t known how long Flaherty will be out, as Goold writes the team will have a more definitive timetable once they see how his shoulder responds to the PRP injection. The diagnosis of the small tear sounds ominous, but Katie Woo of the Athletic reports (via Twitter) the Cardinals have been aware of its presence for a while. Flaherty has pitched through it in the past, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Woo, but he’s apparently not able to do so as things currently stand.

Flaherty missed a good chunk of last season due to injury. He initially suffered an oblique strain that cost him a couple months. Not long after returning in August, he suffered a shoulder strain that knocked him out an additional four weeks. Flaherty returned in a relief capacity at the end of the season, but the repeated issues kept him to 78 1/3 innings over 17 outings.

With Flaherty down at the start of the year, there’s some uncertainty in the rotation behind the top four of Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Dakota Hudson. Goold writes that Mozeliak pointed to Jake Woodford and Matthew Liberatore as possible candidates for the final spot. Swingman Drew VerHagen and non-roster invitee Aaron Brooks — both of whom were signed after stints in Asian leagues (the NPB and KBO, respectively) — could be other options.

Meanwhile, righty Alex Reyes received a stem cell injection in his own ailing shoulder (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). He’ll be shut down from throwing for at least two weeks, and St. Louis doesn’t expect he’ll be ready for MLB action until late May or early June.

Reyes, who served as St. Louis’ primary closer last season, has dealt with a few arm issues in prior years. Various injuries, including a February 2017 Tommy John procedure, limited him to 72 2/3 big league frames between 2016-20. He avoided the IL last season, but he’s seemingly in line to miss the first six-plus weeks of this year. While he’s out, pitchers like Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley could be bumped up a peg in the high-leverage pecking order.

Cardinals Notes: Hicks, Reyes, Designated Hitter, Shortstop, DeJong,

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The Cardinals have made one relatively minor move since the lockout was lifted, signing reliever Drew VerHagen to a two-year deal. He steps into a bullpen that also features Giovanny Gallegos, Ryan Helsley and T.J. McFarland and seems as if it’ll include flamethrowing righties Alex Reyes and Jordan Hicks.

St. Louis brass has floated the idea of each of Reyes and Hicks lengthening out into rotation roles over the offseason. Yet president of baseball operations John Mozeliak cast some doubt on that possibility when speaking with reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) yesterday.

“I do think getting Alex and Jordan stretched is going to be much more challenging than in a normal time,” Mozeliak said in reference to the ban on staff members from communicating with players on their 40-man rosters between December 2 and March 10. While he didn’t specifically rule a rotation conversion out, that prospect always seemed a bit of a reach — particularly with regards to Hicks. Hicks pitched only ten innings in 2021, as he went on the injured list in early May with elbow inflammation that proved season-ending. That came on the heels of a June 2019 Tommy John surgery that had wiped out his prior season and a half, so building him towards a starter’s workload would’ve been a challenge even had there not been a work stoppage.

Reyes logged a full season in 2021, tossing 72 1/3 frames over 69 appearances. That marks almost exactly the same amount of work Reyes took on at the major league level from 2016-20 combined, as he also required a Tommy John procedure (in February 2017, in his case). He struggled quite a bit in the second half, and his 16.4% walk rate was higher than that of any starting pitcher last year. Between those innings and strike-throwing concerns, Reyes might also have had trouble cracking a starting rotation that currently projects to include Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas.

Mozeliak also addressed the position player mix, suggesting the club might look externally for help in handling the designated hitter spot now available for National League teams (Jones link). He suggested that internal options like Lars Nootbaar or Juan Yepez could be considered for that role but noted there may be “short term solutions” available on the market. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported during the lockout that former Pirates infielder Colin Moran was of interest to the Cards, presumably as an option for such a role.

One position at which it doesn’t seem the Cardinals will consider outside help is shortstop. Speaking with Dani Wexelman of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this afternoon (Twitter link), Mozeliak downplayed the possibility of upgrading there. “I don’t think so,” he replied when asked if they’d acquire another shortstop. “We met with Paul (DeJong) prior to the lockout. We told him we thought he could be our shortstop. … Obviously, there’s going to be some competition in this camp with somebody like Edmundo Sosa, but in terms of going outside of that, I don’t think that makes a whole lot of sense for us.”

That’s not a surprise, as reports have increasingly suggested the Cardinals seem confident in DeJong’s ability to bounce back from a second straight down year at the plate. He rates highly in the eyes of public defensive metrics, and last year’s career-best barrel rate suggests he can continue to at least bring some power to the table offensively. St. Louis was mentioned earlier in the offseason as a speculative fit for star free agents like Carlos Correa or Trevor Story, but Mozeliak’s comments seem to close the book on the chances they make a run at either player.

Cardinals Want To Bring Back Luis Garcia, Add Rotation Arm

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The Cardinals are working to re-sign late-inning reliever Luis Garcia after the hard-throwing righty’s breakout season in St. Louis, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Even if the Cardinals do bring back Garcia, they will still target at least one additional potential high leverage reliever. Alex Reyes handled much of the high leverage workload last year, but they’d like to give Reyes an opportunity to claim a rotation spot.

As for Garcia, he has long struggled with his command, but he held it together for a career-low 5.9 percent walk rate in his 34 appearances with the Cardinals last season. That kind of control with a sinking fastball averaging more than 98 mph is a killer combination that helped Garcia notch a 25.2 percent strikeout rate and 3.24 ERA/2.72 FIP in 33 1/3 innings. His innings weren’t cheap ones either, as Garcia managed to save a pair of games and preserve leads enough to earn 12 holds.

Along with Garcia and another late inning arm, Goold also mentions sinkerballing starters like Steven Matz or Alex Cobb as a potential target for the Cardinals. Both are coming off relatively strong seasons and would likely benefit from pitching in front of the Gold Glove laden infield in St. Louis. The Cardinals have starting options with Dakota Hudson coming back from Tommy John and Reyes potentially moving into the rotation, but with deadline acquisitions Jon Lester and J.A. Happ now free agents, there are a fair number of innings to go around.

Cardinals Notes: Reyes, Hicks, Scherzer, Matz

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The Cardinals’ rotation for 2022 is 80% set, with Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson pencilled into four out of the five slots. However, that last spot could still seemingly go in many different ways, either with internal or external options. Derrick S. Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke to the team’s president of baseball operations John Mozeliak about the various paths they’re choosing between.

The club is apparently giving consideration to Alex Reyes and Jordan Hicks, both of whom having been primarily working as relievers in recent years and are questionable fits for rotation jobs. Reyes had an excellent year out of the bullpen in 2021, eventually becoming the team’s closer. In 72 1/3 innings, he had an ERA of 3.24 with a strikeout rate of 30% and notched 29 saves. However, that also came with a walk rate of 16.4%, around twice the league average. He also comes with a lengthy injury history that has limited his contributions in his career thus far. Those 72 1/3 innings from this year are the most he’s thrown since 2016, when he threw 111 1/3 between Triple-A and the big leagues, which is the most he’s logged in a single season. That was followed by a completely lost season in 2017 and three straight years of just a few dozen each.

The situation with Hicks is somewhat comparable, as he had an excellent season in 2018, throwing 77 2/3 innings out of the bullpen with a 3.59 ERA. However, he was limited to 28 2/3 innings in 2019 before having to undergo Tommy John surgery, opted out of 2020 and then was limited by injuries to just 13 innings in 2021, between Triple-A and the big leagues. Expecting him to jump into a rotation job at this point seems like a tall ask, and Mozeliak admitted as much. “My guess is no better than yours or anybody else’s,” he said, in regards to what Hicks could provide in the future. “For him to go out and pitch north of 100 innings would be maybe putting him in a difficult spot.”

In addition to those two, Goold also lists Jake Woodford, Johan Oviedo and Genesis Cabrera as those who are in the mix. Despite all of those candidates, the club is still looking into external options, which is understandable based on how 2021 went. Multiple injuries caused the club the struggle in the first half, leading them to make the mid-summer additions of Jon Lester, J.A. Happ and Wade LeBlanc. Although that helped stabilize the staff and get the club into the playoffs, they’re all now free agents. As Mozeliak puts it, “Last year, we thought we had nine or 10. I think you’ve got to have some protection going in regardless of what we say we’re going to get them to do… Having some additional arms is healthy.”

Goold’s report says that free agent Max Scherzer “would entertain an offer from the Cardinals”, which is notable because Scherzer was apparently unwilling to waive his no-trade clause to join them this past summer, preferring to become a member of a West Coast club. However, now that he is trying to maximize his earning potential, it makes sense that he would try to keep as many buyers at the table as possible, in order to ensure healthy bidding. Even if Scherzer is genuinely open to working in Missouri, where he was born and raised, the club may have trouble fitting him into the budget, as their 2022 payroll is currently over $142MM, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That’s around $20MM shy of 2021’s opening day payroll, which was a franchise record, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Scherzer is likely to command much more than that for an annual salary, with MLBTR recently predicting he garners a contract of $120MM over three years, an annual average value of $40MM.

A pitcher who will come much cheaper is Steven Matz, who was at the GM Meetings yesterday, according to Tim Healey of Newsday. Healey lists the Cardinals as being interested in his services, along with the Red Sox, Angels and Dodgers. MLBTR predicted Matz to land a deal of $27MM over three years, an AAV of $9MM which would certainly fit into the Cards’ payroll much more neatly than Scherzer’s. Matz had a solid year for the Blue Jays in 2021, throwing 150 2/3 innings with an ERA of 3.82. He figures to be popular among teams hesitant to surrender draft picks, as he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Jays.

MLBTR Poll: What Should The Cardinals Do With Alex Reyes?

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The Cardinals rotation has featured a series of guest stars and few regulars this season, with 12 different pitchers taking a turn and only 40-year-old Adam Wainwright logging enough innings to qualify. As a group, they’re 13th in the Majors in terms of starters’ innings, and 12th league-wide by measure of ERA (4.02 ERA). By measure of FIP, however, their 4.46 FIP ranks 20th in the game, and if we look ahead to 2022, there’s more than enough uncertainty to make nervous thinkers in Redbird Nation fret.

The five guys currently taking hill turns for manager Mike Shildt have an average age of 36.5, so it’s not a sprightly group. Except for Miles Mikolas, they’re all heading towards free agency at year’s end, too. In fact, of those 12 players who have started a game in 2021, six will be free agents, and John Gant has already been dealt to Minnesota. All of which is to say, the Cardinals have their work cut out for them before Opening Day 2022.

The cupboard isn’t barren, however. For starters, there will be the annual Wainwright retirement question. But with Yadier Molina coming back for one final season, isn’t it almost too perfect for Waino to do anything but follow suit?

Jack Flaherty raises the ceiling of the group, and they’ve made clear that priority one is getting their ace ready for next season, even if that means shutting it down the rest of this year. Dakota Hudson will be an interesting wildcard as he returns from Tommy John. Mikolas is also trying to get healthy, having made just three starts this season. The Cards are on the hook to pay him $17MM in each of the next two seasons, so if the 33-year-old can get healthy, he should have a rotation spot.

Not to mention, any of Jake Woodford, Johan Oviedo, T.J. Zeuch, Matthew Liberatore, Zack Thompson, or Angel Rondon could be given a look. There are definitely arms floating around in the organization that could ramp up to earn rotation minutes.

But there’s another familiar name that’s going to be given a chance to win a rotation spot: Alex Reyes.

Reyes turns 27-years-old tomorrow, and the former top prospect is in the midst of an establishing campaign. In what’s really been his first full season in the bigs, Reyes has a 2.50 ERA/3.90 FIP over 57 2/3 innings. His usage has certainly been consistent: of his 55 appearances, 50 of them have finished the game, a mark that leads the Majors. Simply put, he’s gone from a high-ceiling rotation question mark to an All-Star closer.

But next season, Reyes will follow Carlos Martinez in the Cardinal tradition of yo-yo-ing organizational expectations from starter to closer and back again. Let’s be clear, for this season, Reyes is the Cardinals closer and that’s the end of it. But next year is a different story, said Shildt on MLB Network Radio. Reyes will be given the opportunity to compete for a rotation spot in 2022.

Reyes has maintained a starter’s arsenal in the bullpen, throwing his fastball, slider, and sinker with almost equal usage rates. He’s been even more diverse against lefties, mixing in an occasional curveball or change-up as needed. His heater has averaged 96.5 mph, which is right around what he was averaging when he first came up as a starter. It might be, then, that he’d lose a tick or two if spread out to a starter’s workload.

The concern relates to his injury history and whether or not the Cards should risk losing another valuable bullpen arm by risking a move to the rotation. There’s more upside in the rotation, of course, but there’s something to be said for letting Reyes stay where he’s been successful. After all, if there’s a desire to get him more time on the mound, the Cards could ramp up his usage with multi-inning outings instead of making a full-scale switch to the rotation.

However many innings Reyes finishes with this season will be his most in a single year since the 2016 campaign. He threw between 100 and 110 innings from 2014 to 2016, which is pretty typical for a young arm on the rise. Whether one healthy season is enough to make Reyes ready for that kind of workload again is unclear.

As a starter, of course, the hope would be that he’d surpass even those totals. That said, it’s looking like only Wainwright and Kwang Hyun Kim will accumulate more than 100 innings from the Cards’ rotation this season, so there’s space to make an impact even without posting an 150-inning season.

Even tempering expectations, the Cards could expect 40-50 more innings from Reyes if he can stay healthy in the rotation. Considering his injury history, however, it’s tempting to take the money on the table now and settle in with Reyes as the closer of the next few years.

Of course, Cardinal closers haven’t been any more immune to arm injuries than their starters have, so there’s an argument to be made that whichever course they take with Reyes, there’s risk. If that’s the case, why not pursue the upside of a rotation slot?

From the beginning of the year, the Cardinals have maintained that this season would be an opportunity to inch Reyes’ workload closer to that of a starter and look ahead next season. He’s been much closer to a traditional reliever than the multi-inning firearm we might have expected, but he’s still likely to finish with something close to 70 innings.

The last consideration is timeline. Even though this will be Reyes’ first full season in the Majors, he has just two years of arbitration remaining, so it might be now or never to see if Reyes can be a starter before he hits the open market. Two years as a starter might make Reyes too pricey for the Cards, but it might also give them enough certainty to lock him up at the right rate, knowing he could be a starter moving forward.

Wainwright believes Reyes can make the jump, per Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who provides this quote from Reyes about Wainwright: “He always looks at me and tells me, ‘Hey man, you’re a starter. You know I was there, and I was able to do it. I believe you can. Just those words of encouragement, they make me feel good. And also, they give me the thought. Someone like Adam Wainwright, who has had such a long career here and has been pitching for so long, if he thinks like that of me?”

Let’s give the St. Louis brass some help and point them in the right direction.

(poll link for app users)

Cardinals Notes: Hudson, Reyes, Hicks

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The Cardinals have been without right-hander Dakota Hudson all season after the right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery late last September, but the 26-year-old revealed on Instagram last night that he’s progressed to facing live hitters (hat tip: Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, on Twitter). Hudson is working out at the team’s Spring Training facility, per Jones, who adds that there’s a “slim but real chance” he could return to the team late in the 2021 season.

That’d make for one of the quicker Tommy John returns we’ve seen in recent years. Hudson had has operation on Sept. 28, 2020, and we’ve increasingly seen pitchers take closer to 14 months to return. Of course, even if Hudson were to return, he likely wouldn’t be an option for the Cardinals until the final few weeks of the season. Any innings from Hudson would be a bonus, and it’s worth noting that we don’t know what type of role he’d have if he indeed made it back. It’s feasible the Cards would want to limit his pitch counts, so fans shouldn’t bank on Hudson stepping in and salvaging what’s been an injury-decimated starting staff.

A few more notes on the Cardinals’ pitching staff…

  • Alex Reyes has stepped up as an All-Star closer for the Cards in 2021, delivering on the potential that has long made him one of the game’s most prized pitching prospects. However, the right-hander tells Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he’d still like the opportunity to pitch out of the rotation in 2022. The 26-year-old Reyes has pitched to a minuscule 1.52 ERA and gone 20-for-20 in save chances this season, although his sky-high 18.2 percent walk rate still leaves plenty of room for improvement. This year’s 41 1/3 innings are also the most Reyes has thrown in a single season since 2016, as injuries have decimated the early phases of his career. Reyes totaled just 87 innings combined from 2017-20. The Cardinals control him via arbitration through 2023.
  • Manager Mike Shildt cast some doubt on Jordan Hicks’ recovery timeline in his latest update on the injured righty (via Zachary Silver of MLB.com). Hicks only recently resumed playing catch, and a full return to baseball activities isn’t particularly close, it seems. Silver notes that Schildt indicated that it “remains to be seen” whether Hicks will make it back to the roster in 2021 at all. Hicks hit the injured list in early May with inflammation in his elbow, but additional testing led to an injection that shut him down entirely for a period of six weeks. The 24-year-old, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 and opted out of the 2020 season for health concerns (diabetes), has thrown 10 innings in 2021. He’s allowed six runs on five hits and 10 walks with 10 strikeouts. Like Reyes, he’s controllable through the 2023 campaign.

Quick Hits: In-Game Video, Calhoun, Reyes

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It was on this day in 1932 that the Reds made one of the best trades in franchise history, acquiring future Hall-of-Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi as part of a seven-player trade with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Lombardi was coming off a solid rookie season, but since Brooklyn already had Al Lopez behind the plate, Lombardi became an expendable trade chip.  The Reds reaped the benefits as Lombardi rose to stardom over 10 seasons in Cincinnati, hitting .311/.359/.469 with 120 homers over 4288 plate appearances in a Reds uniform.  His tenure in Cincy included the 1938 NL MVP Award, five All-Star appearances, and a starring role in the Reds’ World Series victory in 1940.

Some items from the modern game…

  • Players will once again be able to access in-game video clips this season, with the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writing that Major League Baseball’s central office will be controlling the video footage available to teams.  Players and coaches will be able to access footage of a past at-bat or pitching sequence during a game, via dugout iPads, with the league editing the footage to ensure that teams can’t use video for underhanded purposes — like stealing signals, for instance.  Prior to 2020, it had become common practice for a hitter to visit a clubhouse computer terminal to review footage from his previous plate appearance, but clubhouse terminals were banned due to COVID-19 concerns last year.  This certainly played a role in some hitters suddenly struggling at the plate, since they had gotten to used to making video-aided adjustments.
  • Willie Calhoun has been bothered by a groin injury during Spring Training, and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link) believes the Rangers could be cautious and place Calhoun on the injured list to begin the year.  An IL stint certainly wouldn’t be welcome for Calhoun considering his injury-shortened and unproductive 2020 campaign, though it might be necessary to ensure that the young slugger is both fully healthy and fully prepared for the season.  A former top-100 prospect, Calhoun seemed to taking a step forward with a solid .269/.323/.524 slash line over 337 PA in 2019.
  • Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has already said that the team will use Alex Reyes out of the bullpen this season, but with Miles Mikolas and Kwang Hyun Kim both facing injury problems, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the team should reverse course and install Reyes into the rotation.  While it makes sense that the Cards want to carefully manage Reyes’ workload given his own lengthy injury history, Frederickson argues that the most optimal usage of Reyes’ projected 80-100 innings would be to use him as a starter until the rotation gets healthy, and then shift him to the pen.
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