Angels Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal
The Angels have signed infielder/outfielder Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake and should make an appearance for the Bees in the near future.
Reyes, 32, began the season with the Padres on a minor league deal but he was released last week. It’s possible that he had some kind of opt-out in that deal because he actually performed quite well. He stepped to the plate 258 times for Triple-A El Paso, with strong walk and strikeout rates of 13.6% and 14%, respectively. He slashed .310/.408/.491. Even in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, that production was 21% better than league average, according to wRC+.
In his big league career, Reyes has never put up numbers like that. He has been a part-time player for five different teams and played in seven different seasons. Across those different stints, he has put up a tepid .245/.305/.342 line in 606 big league plate appearances. His main contribution has been defensive versatility, as he has experience at every spot on the diamond except catcher.
For the Angels, there’s no harm in bringing him aboard on a minor league deal and having some extra non-roster depth. The Angels have the worst record in baseball at 37-56, lining them up to be clear deadline sellers. Guys like Jorge Soler, Jose Siri, Josh Lowe, Oswald Peraza, Vaughn Grissom and Jo Adell are potential trade candidates.
A bolder move of someone like Zach Neto, who is an everyday player and controlled for three more seasons, will be speculated upon but that’s the kind of trade the Angels have not made in recent history. The club just made a front office switch, with general manager Perry Minasian fired and replaced by interim GM John Mozeliak, but it’s unclear if that will lead to a sudden sea change in how the franchise operates.
Time will tell how that plays out but Reyes could be an option to be called up if some playing time opens up, whether that is due to trades or injuries. If he does eventually get a roster spot, he is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Padres Release Pablo Reyes
The Padres have released infielder Pablo Reyes from his minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He is now a free agent and is eligible to sign with any club in the league.
Reyes, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Padres in the offseason. He has been performing quite well and the Padres haven’t been getting a lot of production from their big league infield, so it’s possible that Reyes triggered a July 1st opt-out in his deal.
He has appeared in 56 Triple-A games this year and stepped to the plate 258 times. He has a .310/.408/.491 line and 121 wRC+. He has gotten some help from a high .347 batting average on balls in play but his 13.6% walk rate and 14% strikeout rate are both much better than average.
Throughout his big league career, Reyes has mostly been a light-hitting utility guy. He has a .245/.305/.342 line and 76 wRC+ in 606 plate appearances spread over seven seasons, suiting up for five different teams. But he’s a capable defender at multiple defensive positions, with experience at every spot except catcher, so a team could put him at shortstop every day.
Reyes will now look for his next opportunity. It’s possible the Padres look to bring him back on a new minor league deal, given their aforementioned infield issues, but he will have the chance to talk to the other 29 clubs as well.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Padres Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal
The Padres have signed infielder Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal, per Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The Klutch Sports client will presumably also receive an invite to major league camp in spring training.
Reyes, 32, has appeared in seven big league seasons. He has mostly served as a part-time utility player and as a source of hope and inspiration. Overall, he has appeared in 259 games and stepped to the plate 606 times over those seven campaigns. He has produced a .245/.305/.342 batting line and stolen 14 bases. The righty swinger has been better against lefties, with a .272/.325/.418 line when holding the platoon advantage.
Defensively, Reyes can fill multiple positions. He has at least 150 innings at the three infield positions to the left of first base, as well as each of the outfield corners. He’s also had briefer stints at first base and in center field, plus five mop-up innings on the mound.
One year ago, he signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and eventually cracked the Opening Day roster with that club. He was on the roster for almost three months but didn’t play much. He got into 25 games, mostly as a defensive replacement. He only received 34 plate appearances and put up a .194/.242/.226 line in those. He was designated for assignment in June, became a free agent and then landed a minor league deal with the Mets. He put up a strong .289/.385/.484 line for Triple-A Syracuse over the next few months.
The Padres currently project to have an infield of Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Gavin Sheets from left to right, with Ramón Laureano, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the outfield. Guys like Mason McCoy, Will Wagner, Tirso Ornelas and Bryce Johnson are on the 40-man and are candidates for bench spots. The first three of those guys have options and could be sent to the minors. Reyes will come into camp looking to earn a reserve role. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
Mets Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal
The Mets are signing infielder Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal, according to a report from MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. Reyes recently elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Yankees when Giancarlo Stanton returned from the injured list earlier this week. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Syracuse.
Reyes, 31, is a veteran of parts of seven MLB seasons at this point. It’s the second consecutive season where Reyes has been part of the Mets organization. He began the 2024 campaign with the Red Sox but was traded to New York in May of last year. He briefly joined the roster as a depth option and made a single appearance as a pinch runner where he recorded a run scored before being designated for assignment and outrighted to the minors.
Outside of his brief stint in Queens last year, Reyes has appeared in the Yankees, Red Sox, Brewers, and Pirates organizations over the years. He made his MLB debut in Pittsburgh back in 2018 and hit an impressive .293/.349/.483 across 18 games in that first cup of coffee, but was unable to replicate those results in 2019. He missed the entire 2020 season due to a PED suspension and departed the organization not long afterwards. Reyes signed with the Brewers on a minor league deal prior to the 2021 season and was passable but below average at the plate in 56 games for the club across two seasons, hitting .258/.330/.344 (84 wRC+) during his time in Milwaukee.
Reyes joined the Red Sox prior to the 2023 season and enjoyed by far his strongest season in the majors with Boston. Across 64 games as a platoon partner for David Hamilton on the middle infield, Reyes hit a respectable .287/.339/.377 with a wRC+ of 93 while striking out at a career-low 11.4% clip. Unfortunately, that strong performance increasingly appears to have been a flash in the pan as he’s hit just .187/.237/.220 (26 wRC+) with a 29.6% strikeout rate in 98 plate appearances between the Red Sox and Yankees the last two seasons.
While Reyes is hardly a good bet to offer value with the bat, he’s a versatile defender with plenty of speed. That’s enough to make him an interesting bench option for plenty of MLB clubs, and it’s at least conceivable an injury or two could make him a viable consideration for the Mets. Nick Madrigal and Mark Vientos are already on the shelf for New York as things stand, with youngsters Luisangel Acuna and Ronny Mauricio currently on the MLB bench. If the Mets decide either young player could benefit from regular at-bats at Triple-A or another injury occurs, Reyes would compete with other non-roster players like Donovan Walton and David Villar to be the next man up.
Pablo Reyes Elects Free Agency
Pablo Reyes elected free agency after going unclaimed on waivers, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. The Yankees had designated the out-of-options utilityman for assignment when they activated Giancarlo Stanton on Monday.
Reyes had been on New York’s active roster for the first two and a half months of the season. He broke camp after signing an offseason minor league deal. There wasn’t much playing time available for either Reyes or Oswald Peraza, another utility infielder who can’t be optioned. The Yankees essentially needed to decide between the two players once Stanton returned from his elbow injuries. They gave a longer leash to the 25-year-old Peraza, a former highly-regarded prospect whose bat has stalled in recent seasons.
The righty-hitting Reyes is a veteran journeyman whose primary asset is his versatility off the bench. He made 24 appearances overall but was only penciled into the starting lineup on seven occasions — four times at second base, twice at third base, and once in right field. He batted .194 in 34 trips to the plate. Reyes had similarly brief playing time with the Red Sox and Mets last season. His best season came two years ago, when he hit .287/.339/.377 in 64 games with Boston.
Reyes returns to free agency as a lifetime .245/.305/.342 hitter in a little over 600 MLB plate appearances. He has some experience at every position aside from catcher. He might be limited to minor league offers but should find interest as a depth piece. Reyes owns a .278/.349/.452 line in nearly 400 career Triple-A games.
Yankees Designate Pablo Reyes For Assignment
The Yankees announced that infielder/outfielder Pablo Reyes has been designated for assignment. That opens an active roster spot for designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was reported earlier today. The club’s 40-man roster count stays at 39.
Reyes, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Yanks in the offseason and made the Opening Day roster. He has since served in a reserve role, often as a late-game replacement. He has appeared in 25 games with 34 plate appearances, hitting just .194/.242/.226 in those.
That’s not a great performance but it’s a small sample and it’s tough to maintain quality results with such sporadic action. Him getting the DFA treatment today is more about a fairly crowded Yankee roster. Stanton taking a place in the lineup means that one of Ben Rice or Paul Goldschmidt will be on the bench most days. One of the club’s four outfielders will take up a spot as well. Backup catcher J.C. Escarra will also be on the pine most days.
That left Reyes and fellow infielder Oswald Peraza for the bench spot. Both are out of options and performing poorly at the plate this year but Peraza is several years younger and not too far removed from being a top 100 prospect, so it makes sense to hang onto him in the hopes that there’s still some future value to be extracted there.
Add it all up and it equals Reyes heading into DFA limbo. That can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the club could take up to five days to explore trades. Reyes passed through waivers in September and then settled for a minor league deal in the offseason. He hasn’t done much to raise his stock since then, so it’s possible he clears waivers yet again. If he does so, he’ll have the right to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright.
He now has 606 career plate appearances in the majors with a .245/.305/.342 line and 75 wRC+. He’s capable of bouncing all around the diamond, with experience at every position except catcher. That includes five innings of mop-up work on the mound.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
Yankees Select Pablo Reyes
The Yankees announced that they have selected infielder/outfielder Pablo Reyes to their 40-man roster. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic previously relayed that Reyes had a locker at Yankee Stadium. In a corresponding move, they placed right-hander Jake Cousins on the 60-day injured list. Cousins has a right elbow flexor strain and apparently isn’t expected back in the first two months of the season.
Reyes, 31, is a journeyman part-time utility guy. He has appeared in six big league seasons, suiting up for four different teams, but without eclipsing 71 games played in any one season. He has a .248/.309/.349 career batting line while playing every position except catcher.
He signed a minor league deal with the Yankees this winter and put up a strong .311/.418/.467 line in Grapefruit League play. That performance, as well as some notable Yankee injuries, will get him back to the big leagues. DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton are both starting the season on the injured list. LeMahieu has a calf strain while Stanton has been battling injuries to both elbows. The Yankees listed his injury as elbow epicondylitis when placing him on the 10-day IL yesterday.
With LeMahieu out, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza will seemingly be battling for regular playing time at third base. Stanton’s DH job might go to a rotation of players, with Ben Rice perhaps the favorite for the most time there.
On the bench, J.C. Escarra will be the backup catcher. Trent Grisham will be the fourth outfielder, perhaps allowing Aaron Judge to DH with some frequency. Reyes will provide infield depth alongside the Cabrera/Peraza duo. Reyes is out of options and will have to be removed from the 40-man if he gets nudged off the active roster when LeMahieu is healthy.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Yankees Considering Adding Right-Handed Hitting Depth
It wasn’t long ago that the Yankees’ lineup was almost entirely comprised of right-handed hitters, but the additions of such players as Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr., plus the emergence of in-house options like Austin Wells, Ben Rice, and switch-hitter Jasson Dominguez has brought a lot more balance to the Bronx. GM Brian Cashman even told reporters (including The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner) yesterday that he would be “happier” with another right-handed bat available on the roster, and that the Yankees are exploring such options as other teams make their end-of-spring cuts.
“I think some choices have emerged in camp, then it comes down to if those choices are better than anything else that might exist outside that you could either trade for and that you are comfortable enough giving up what it would take to get,” Cashman said. “We’re measuring that versus options that might get the bad word in another camp that they’re not making it and all of a sudden we’re competing for those services.”
Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu will both be on the injured list for the foreseeable future, leaving the roster short of two prominent bats that were expected (particularly in Stanton’s case) for regular roles. Ideally, a right-handed hitter that could handle at least one of left field or third base would be the best fit, as such a player could step into the outfield if Dominguez struggles in his first extended stint of MLB playing time, or help out at a third base position that remains a question mark as Opening Day approaches.
The Yankees have such a player available in utilityman Pablo Reyes, who has amassed quite a bit of playing time at third, in left, and at other positions over his six big league seasons. Reyes hasn’t hit much at the big league level, but he has hit decently well this spring, to the point that he seems to be on track to have his minor league contract selected to New York’s Opening Day roster. That decision would put Reyes in position to share some at-bats at the hot corner with switch-hitter Oswaldo Cabrera.
Whether or not Reyes makes the team remains to be seen, as he could yet be the odd man out should the Yankees indeed bring a new player into the mix. At the very least, Reyes seems to be a higher priority to the team than former top prospect Oswald Peraza. As Kirschner observes, Cashman talking so openly about a need for right-handed hitting help doesn’t exactly bode well for Peraza’s future in the Bronx.
Peraza burst into the majors with an .832 OPS over 58 plate appearances during his 2022 rookie season, but that was reduced to a .539 OPS in 191 PA in 2023, as he didn’t rise to the occasion when given more of an opportunity at third base with LeMahieu on the injured list. A shoulder injury then delayed his start to the 2024 season, and Peraza ended up making only four MLB appearances last year.
Both Reyes and Peraza are out of minor league options, so they would have to first go through waivers before New York could them send them to Triple-A. Kirschner feels Peraza wouldn’t last long on the waiver wire given his solid defense, plus his former top-100 prospect status would surely attract teams that might feel he needs a change of scenery. Having two out-of-options players on the bench isn’t ideal anyway from a roster flexibility standpoint, so it will be interesting to see how the Yankees proceed with this duo, or if a new face is brought into the organization.
Yankees Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal
The Yankees have signed veteran utility man Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal, per a report from Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. The infielder will presumably receive an invite to big league Spring Training in a few months.
Reyes, 31, made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2018. That 18-game cup of coffee in the majors went quite well for him, as he slashed an impressive .293/.349/.483 in 63 trips to the plate down the stretch that September. That strong performance earned him a larger role with the club as part of the club’s Opening Day roster, but he struggled badly and found himself optioned to the minors for much of the summer as he ultimately slashed just .203/.274/.322 in 71 games. A PED suspension wiped out Reyes’s 2020 season, but he resurfaced as a member of the Brewers in 2021. He spent two years as a depth piece for Milwaukee, shuttling between Triple-A and the club’s bench, and hit a middling .258/.330/.344 (84 wRC+) in 103 trips to the plate with the club.
He elected free agency following the 2022 season and initially signed on with the Athletics on a minor league pact for the 2023 season. He ultimately did not make it to Oakland, however, failing to crack the club’s Opening Day roster before being shipped to the Red Sox in mid-May. He was quickly selected to the big league roster in Boston, and his time with the Red Sox proved to be the most productive of his big league career. Reyes appeared in 64 games for the Red Sox last year, slashing a roughly league average .287/.339/.377 in 185 trips to the plate.
That was a sufficiently strong performance that Boston decided to bring Reyes back for the 2024 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse this year as he posted a paltry 27 wRC+ in the first month of the year before being designated for assignment by the Red Sox in late April. Reyes was outrighted to the minors initially but quickly found himself on the move again as he was dealt to the Mets the following month. Reyes only made one appearance in Queens as a pinch runner without stepping up to the plate, but he did slash a strong .300/.385/.504 in 68 Triple-A games between his two clubs’ affiliates in Worcester and Syracuse.
Now, Reyes will enter 2025 looking to crack a Yankees bench mix that current figures to feature Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, DJ LeMahieu, Jon Berti, and Jorbit Vivas. While Reyes offers little in the way of offense, he does provide value in the form of quality baserunning and the positional flexibility to play everywhere on the diamond except behind the plate. Should Reyes find himself on the outside looking in of the club’s Opening Day roster next year, he could be a valuable source of non-roster depth for a club that currently projects to feature a bench without many optionable players.
Six Players Elect Free Agency
As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.
Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com or MLB.com logs.
Catchers
- Joe Hudson (Mets)
Infielders
- Eddy Alvarez (Mets)
- Pablo Reyes (Mets)
Outfielders
- Estevan Florial (Guardians)
Pitchers
- Tyler Beede (Guardians)
- Carlos Carrasco (Guardians)