The Cardinals received brutal news on touted right-hander Alex Reyes, as the 23-year-old was ultimately diagnosed with a torn tendon in his right lat that necessitated surgical repair (Twitter links via Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Reyes, who pitched four innings in his first start back from Tommy John surgery, is expected to need six months to recover, which would effectively end his 2018 season. The doctors did tell the team that they expect a full recovery, Timmermann adds.
The abrupt end to Reyes’ season is a transformative injury for a Cardinals rotation that was dreaming of six quality options: Reyes, Carlos Martinez, Miles Mikolas, Luke Weaver, Michael Wacha and Jack Flaherty (to say nothing of the rehabbing Adam Wainwright and depth arms like Austin Gomber and John Gant). While the very presence of Flaherty, Gomber and Gant should allow the Cards to field a competitive rotation even without Reyes and Wainwright, the group now looks thinner than the organization would’ve hoped. Martinez himself is only just back from a less-severe lat injury of his own, and he looked decidedly rusty in his first start since being activated off the DL yesterday.
Of greater concern, of course, is the long-term ability of Reyes to contribute in the rotation. While there’s no doubting the talent he possesses in his right arm, his four-inning appearance this season was his first action since the 2016 campaign. As Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch rightly points out (via Twitter), by the time the 2019 season kicks off, Reyes will have pitched just four MLB innings in a span of 31 months. That doesn’t even factor in a shoulder injury he had in the minors back in 2015. In all, the highest total of innings Reyes has ever thrown in a full season is 116 1/3 in 2015 (101 1/3 regular-season frames and 15 innings in the Arizona Fall League).
Reyes will continue to accrue MLB service time while he misses a second straight season rehabbing from a major surgery, meaning that by Opening Day 2019, he’ll have racked up two years, 55 days of service despite throwing only 46 innings at the Major League level. He’s on track to be eligible for arbitration following the 2019 season and can be controlled through the 2022 season as things currently stand.
He’s like a talented Brett Anderson….
Brett Anderson was really good before he got hurt too.
Agreed, Anderson was sick up until his 5th injury.
Yikes. His delivery is flawed. Why expect anything different without changing?
exactly right. if he doesn’t fix it he doesn’t stand a chance
Safe to call him a bust?
Not even close yet.
Wtf “a bust” now that is just unnecessary to say did you see his stats he put up in the minors after TJ? A big time surgery obviously didn’t bother his skills. And give Reyes some respect, gosh…
Take a deep breath. It’ll be ok. I’m 99.99% sure Reyes isn’t spending his free time reading mlb trade rumors.
And to answer the OP – No. It’s not safe to call him a bust.
Minors mean nothing to MLB success. Two major surgeries in that short of time is very telling. When I use the word bust I was referring to his potential coming through the ranks. Could he still turn into a decent MLB SP? Sure. Do I think he has many healthy seasons unless he makes changes? No.
Do I think the brewers are staying 1st place the whole season? No
Probably not the next week.
But that’s not what a “bust” means.
Definitely not a bust but I’d agree he probably needs to clean up his mechanics some.
The Cards are into a 23 year old pitcher for just over $2MM total, so no. That’s peanuts in the player development realm, with nothing but upside.
When he’s 30 and has never played a full season. Next year he will be 24.
Yes but he obviously can’t throw as hard as he has been. look at Harvey he lives is 2 miles an hour and is done. you got to ask yourself whether this kid can still pitch without superheat
Harvey had thoracic outlet surgery, which is now becoming notorious for causing diminished velocity and even more problems upon a pitcher’s return. The success rate is extremely poor.
Reyes’s Tommy John recovery went just fine, and a lat strain isn’t known for causing permanent damage. He should be just fine again next season.
Ouch….brutal news. Well…there’s always next year.
Makes me wonder…why do so many pitchers think throwing so hard all the time is necessary? Location matters more than speed. And if they need to amp it up on certain pitches, that just adds to their overall effectiveness. Seems all that hard throwing is causing more and more injuries.
Where were all the pitchers throwing 85mph with command come draft time? Teams are hunting for velo, so players adjust.
As long as there is a premium placed on velocity in baseball (from Little League to the Major Leagues), this will continue unabated. Every organization combs the globe for players who can hit 95+ on the radar gun – actual pitching skills are an afterthought. They all figure their system can teach them how to pitch in between the 18-month stretches on the DL recovering from TJ surgeries.
There is no stronger corollary to run suppression than fastball velocity. So every player should be trying to harvest as much velo as they can out of their bodies.
Safe, effective velo. Every MLB player can turn around on 97mph and quite a few can go yard on 100+mph. Look at Morrow in the playoffs, used properly 97 with life is unhittable then overuse put him at straight/flat 95mph and he was hit very hard. Velo is hard to achieve with your arm in a sling also.
The assumption that mph is directly related to TJ is outdated and asinine. It’s the smooth mechanics and strength of the surrounding muscles (or lack thereof) that contribute to players who tear their UCLs. Look at guys like Verlander, the mechanics wonderchild. He could hit 100 in his prime and has been remarkably healthy. Chris Sale, despite being unorthodox, puts less strain on his arm from his arm slot, and he still throws fast. I could further the argument with softer throwers, pitchers who’s main pitch wasn’t a fastball, or junkball pitchers who still required surgery but if I did this wall of text would be unbearable. The fact of the matter is that some guys can throw 95+ and still limit stress on the UCL which clearly proves that speed has nothing to do with it. Any pitcher can get injured with constant wear on there arm from poor mechanical deliveries.
But what happened. They all got hurt.
Verlander is one example. Many pitchers have gone down to TJ or shoulder issues or nerve damage.
Again, nobody sees the real correlation: take the arm guards off hitters. Make them get off the plate. Plate umpires protect them enough. It is an unfair advantage for hitters. Velocity will drop, injuries will drop, innings pitched will rise again.
You are exactly right! It’s all about mechanics
and maintaining the muscle strength that you use with the pitching motion .
and maintaining the muscle strength that’s used in the pitching motion.
Its being a pitcher vs being a thrower. They need to take the MPH off and learn about the art of it.
And they’ll get bombed if they try and throw 92 in the zone
Just like Bartolo, right? There’s more than one way to succeed as a pitcher, control is one of them.
You’d think a guy named supersinker would know that.
So long as hitters are allowed to crowd the plate while wearing arm guards and umpires policing pitchers that come too far inside the plate there will be more injuries and more 92 mph and under guys getting ripped. Some find success, most don’t.
Welp… there goes my keeper. While he rehabs, he’ll roster MLB service time, right?
yes he will
I picked him up on my fantasy team a week before he was activated. Four innings. Try again next year.
What if he was placed on the 60 day DL?
Is this the same injury that Jake Peavy had?
It’s similar but not quite identical. Same surgeon performed the procedure, though.
BUST
No 23 year old player can ever be labeled a bust.
So dumb to say this about anyone under 30.
Mark Appel
Guy who never made the bigs is your answer?
Appel could still come back though, lol
You don’t just get to shift the goal posts when someone gives an example of you being wrong.
You can’t call him a busy just because he’s been hurt a lot out of the 3ish years he should be up here. When he plays, he has been good. I guess you have to see what the cards do with him and how he performs after this surgery. I wouldn’t say give him til he is 30, but come on, the guy is real young yet. That’s too high of expectations
50 IP, 46 + 4
Wondering if this is going to be blamed on Matheny also. Some posters think it has to be blamed on Matheny.
Yeah I blame Yadier Molina? … not. Why would you blame it on the manager? What did he overuse him in his 4 inning season debut?
Cub fan, hate to see it. He looks like a stud . Hopefully Redbirds get him back and he can be a big time closer for them . Hicks and him would Be a filthy 8-9 inning duo.
Perfect example of TINSTAAPP
Ok, now we might consider trading him for Machado
Time to start asking about the Cardinals Pitching coach. Way too many young guys with bad injury’s in this organization.
They just got a new pitching coach this season. You can’t pin this all on the new guy Maddux.
Man hopefully this guys career doesn’t get derailed by injuries. It’s off to an awfully bad spot. This is also terrible for St. Louis. They’ve essentially lost two years of control on a potential top of the rotation arm and received nothing in return.
Wow, just another player with an injury that sure seems to doom Cards talent. Before this our only real problem was lack of offense and defense ineptness, now I’m truly worried because we needed to trade from some of that good pitching to get offense but now it seems we will need another top starter as well as a 3rd or 1st Basemen that can hit.
1B (Martinez) and 3B (Carpenter/Gyorko) haven’t been the problem, at least not since Carp busted out of his slump. The problems are that DeJong is still on the DL and that Wong and Fowler have been awful this year and are now eating up more playing time than they deserve that should be going to Gyorko and Bader.
As for a top starter, are 3 of them (once Martinez gets back in a groove, alongside Mikolas and Wacha) not enough for you?
The bullpen is actually the biggest issue. Norris and Hicks have been great, and a few of the youngsters (such as Tuivailala, Mayers, and Brebbia) have been good, but the rest of the veterans have either been stinking it up, injured, or often both at one point or another.
Great news for me, the more bad things that happen to the Cardinals, the better. Sorry
Blackandyellow3-If you call yourself a ‘sports lover’ your comment is utterly reprehensible and you should be ashamed. How can you wish that bad things happen to anyone just playing a game. Seek help for your malicious & disgusting thoughts.
it blew my mind how everyone expected him to be a top prospect after his surgery.
Alex Reyes for 2019 NL Rookie of the Year!
If he can pull it off, would he be the first ROY in the 2-3 year service class?