3:35pm: Manny Gómez of NJ Advanced Media reports that there’s no deal in place with Reyes, which MLBTR has confirmed.
3:20pm: The Mets have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Alex Reyes, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The righty also receives an invite to major league spring training. The Mets also signed catcher Chris Williams to a minor league pact, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Reyes, 30, is a major unknown at this point in his career. He was once one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball and has done some impressive work in the big leagues, but injuries have been a significant impediment and he hasn’t pitched in any official game action since 2021.
Coming up as a prospect with the Cardinals, Reyes was ranked on Baseball America’s top 100 list in five straight years from 2015 to 2019. He got into the top ten in 2016 and made his major league debut, tossing 46 innings with a 1.57 earned run average. His 12.2% walk rate was on the high side but he also punched out 27.5% of batters faced. Tommy John surgery in February of 2017 wiped out that season. His 2018 return was limited by a lat strain and he struggled in 2019 after that long layoff.
He was back on track to a degree in 2020 and 2021. He worked primarily as a reliever for those two years, tossing 92 innings for the Cards with a 3.23 ERA. His 16.4% walk rate was terrifying but he struck out 30.3% of batters faced and moved into the closer’s role, saving 29 games for St. Louis in 2021.
But as mentioned, that was the last time Reyes has been on the mound. His right shoulder gave him problems early in 2022 and he required surgery in May of that year. He was non-tendered and signed with the Dodgers going into 2023 but then he required another shoulder surgery in June of that year. The Dodgers turned down a club option for 2024 and Reyes didn’t sign elsewhere.
It’s anyone’s guess what Reyes can do after three seasons lost due to shoulder surgeries but there’s no real risk for the Mets on a minor league deal. If he can get back in form, he’ll be found money. The Mets have the payroll to do anything they want, as shown by their record-shattering deal for Juan Soto, but they seem to prefer lower-cost upside plays for the pitching staff. Last offseason, they gave short-term deals to guys like Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Adam Ottavino, Jake Diekman and others.
This winter, they’ve again given relatively short deals to Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas as well as minor league deals for guys like Génesis Cabrera, Chris Devenski and others, with Reyes now added to the list.
Williams, 28, was an eighth-round pick of the Twins and has spent his entire career with that club until now. Based on his minor league numbers, he seems to have a three-true-outcomes approach at the plate. He has 1,919 minor league plate appearances thus far, getting struck out in 29.2% of those but also drawing walks at a 14.5% clip and hitting 95 home runs. His overall batting line of .227/.344/.464 leads to a 110 wRC+. He has played catcher and first base a lot with brief stints at third base and the outfield corners as well, so he can give the Mets some depth at various spots.
Amazed this guy’s still around. I guess at only 30 it’s worth giving it another go
He was pretty good at one point, but two shoulder surgeries is worrisome.
Genesis Cabrera and Alex Reyes reunite! I’ll be routing for him to do well. Reyes had some extremely nasty stuff and was happy to finally see him pitching well as a reliever in 2021. Think that’s when his shoulder started bothering him, Mid way through 21? Gave up that homerun to CT3 more than likely cause he couldn’t finish his pitches. That was the last time he pitched in a major league game
The two surgeries are definitely worrisome, but it’s low risk high reward type singing with a minors deal
The Mets didn’t sign Reyes according to other reporters on x
I saw Mets and Alex and thought they signed Bregman bro
“Reports of the Mets signing Alex Reyes are false. This from a pair of sources with knowledge.”
Manny Gomez Mets beat reporter njdotcom
That’s a name I haven’t heard in a few years. Why not take that shot on a minors deal, maybe he finds a way to turn back the clock and show why he had all that pedigree.
Now this is a guy Hoyer should have taken a chance on instead of the recently signed Jose Urena. Urena will never be anything except batting practice fodder. This guy was ACTUALLY good once.
Wow! he was going to be a star, major arm/shoulder injures have robbed him of that. Lightning in a bottle? hail Mary for Reyes? we will see.
Lots of top prospects go on to have a better twilight career than prime career. Gausman is one of late. Ya never know when a guy can get healthy and put it together
This story – then suddenly non story – is the epitome of clickbait media.
The reporter who said he signed got swindled by something that even the veteran reporters have seen. When a player signs a contract, he signs two things, One gives your naming rights to the team. The other allows you to play for the team called the Universal Player Contract or UPC. Alex Reyes signed one, but not the UPC earlier in the year which placed him on the restricted list and absolutely no one knew about it. The Mets had his naming rights which means he couldn’t sign with anyone else, but Reyes didn’t sign the UPC which means he can’t play for the Mets. He got activated from the restricted list and the reporter assumed he signed with the Mets when in reality it was to get released from the Mets. Pretty interesting story
Did they sign him or not? This is actually the one gamble worth taking out of all the other scrap yard finds of Stearns
Sign Pete salary. Cut the
Exactly.
This just in, the Mets have not signed Pete Salary. However, they did cut the.
Almost a decade removed from having actually done anything of note. 2021’s 4.40 FIP doesn’t really count.
Still, if they looked at a current MRI and he’s still able to throw, why not? You need a half dozen guys to give you 60 innings in the pen, but since that rarely happens you compensate by adding a dozen+ guys who might give you 20 decent innings.
There’s real value over the course of a season to NOT putting bad pitchers on the mound. The better teams rarely if ever stick with a pitcher with an ERA or a FIP over 5.00, and ideally that figure’s 4.50. That Stearns immediately cut Teheran after a single start in 2024 even with no clear idea of who would make the starts for the April 14 and 15 turns in the rotation was reassuring. Nonsense like the 2020 Mets giving Wacha, Gsellman, and Matz 17 starts despite a combined ERA around 8.50 was not going to be tolerated.
2021 to 2024 counts as a decade now? No wonder I’m getting old fast.
@Unclemike1526 Don’t worry kid. You’re not getting old, you’re just getting stupid. Try out the idea that not every sentence has to be completely connected in the contextual sense and doesn’t necessarily modify or comment directly on the previous sentence.
Remember when Cohen was mad when Matz signed a four year contract with StL? The NYM are glad they didn’t keep him.
Also around that time Thor left and signed as a FA with the Angels
Wheeler left for PHI in 2020 (as a FA) which was bad for NYM but especially because he signed with a rival in the division
At the time BVW was their GM and they knew they probably weren’t going to be able to keep all of deGrom, Thor, Wheeler and Matz.
Supposedly they had a chance to match PHIs 5 year 118M offer but did they know beforehand that PHI were that team. BVW I guess was the final say (and was a NEW GM (former agent of deGrom also)
They probably expected they would still have deGrom, Thor and Matz around for awhile but 2 pitchers left shortly and eventually Jacob It just seems NYM management didn’t make some players too happy and they were eager to leave. >>> A L O S T opportunity
In Retrospect I can say Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave OR
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Sometimes Go Awry
Good Times? Maybe Not. Argh!
I Now return you to your present TimeLine. Is it Spring Training yet?
Love this guy’s podcast
Never heard of Aram Leighton or Just Baseball, and I’ve never seen it referenced on this site. So I’m wondering why and how MLBTR gave it the credibility to run the item on this site in the first place.
The link to the item has been erased – not retracted, not explained – on the Just Baseball website. While its not important, it would be nice to know how this shook out.
The reporter who said he signed got swindled by something that even the veteran reporters have seen. When a player signs a contract, he signs two things, One gives your naming rights to the team. The other allows you to play for the team called the Universal Player Contract or UPC. Alex Reyes signed one, but not the UPC earlier in the year which placed him on the restricted list and absolutely no one knew about it. The Mets had his naming rights which means he couldn’t sign with anyone else, but Reyes didn’t sign the UPC which means he can’t play for the Mets. He got activated from the restricted list and the reporter assumed he signed with the Mets when in reality it was to get released from the Mets. Pretty interesting story
Terrific. Now we can’t tell whether these reports are even accurate.
The reporter who said he signed got swindled by something that even the veteran reporters have seen. When a player signs a contract, he signs two things, One gives your naming rights to the team. The other allows you to play for the team called the Universal Player Contract or UPC. Alex Reyes signed one, but not the UPC earlier in the year which placed him on the restricted list and absolutely no one knew about it. The Mets had his naming rights which means he couldn’t sign with anyone else, but Reyes didn’t sign the UPC which means he can’t play for the Mets. He got activated from the restricted list and the reporter assumed he signed with the Mets when in reality it was to get released from the Mets. Pretty interesting story
I mean it is a “rumor” site so we should cut them
*some* slack.
Williams has some pop in his bat. Could give the Mets a pretty powerful duo paired with Alvarez
Torrens will be paired with Alvarez. Williams will be in Syracuse.
@ Rsox…. No one will be “paired with ” Alvarez. Alvarez will be starting. The other catcher will be backing him up.
And Williams has a 30% strikeout rate in triple-A, so he’s still got a learning curve before becoming a major leaguer. He’s a depth piece who may also happen to have some upside.
I would like to see Alvarez limited to 100 games behind the plate, perhaps even 90. He often seems completely overwhelmed while hitting, to the point where calling his stroke “flailing” is a kindness.
Hitting was his calling card in the minors and his roughly .900 OPS bt AA and AAA seems much farther away than it should be.
July 9 to the end of the 2023 season his OPS was .607, and July 2 to the end of the 2024 his OPS was again .607. He seems to fatigue early and badly. I’d like to see what Alvarez can do with a lighter load. Torrens isn’t the worst partner for a starting catcher who’s limited to 90-100 games until his hitting sparks, and at $1.1m in arb would be a solid third stringer if the Mets happen on a superior alternative behind Alvy.
I don’t disagree on Avarez’ hitting, nor with scaling back his playing time. But I don’t think the Mets see him that way. And let’s put that time into perspective:
In 2022, he caught only 79 games, which was a career high to that point, and a big increase over the 40-something he caught the previous season. Traditionally, the Mets increased catching prospects’ workloads by about 30 games per season. He caught 110 games in ’23, which was on point. But most of that was in the majors – added strain, plus he was working hard on his defense and game calling where he was supposed to be a work-in-progress.
Last year, he caught 101 games in total, but that was condensed into just over 4 months due to his early season injury. That would bring him close to 150 games over a 162-gm season, so it was a significant increase in the workload he’d previously carried.
If the Mets were to return to the traditional once-a-week schedule for the backup catcher, that would get Alvarez into about 135 games. Subtract a few more games for nagging injuries, day games after night and he’s down in the 120’s. I’d surmise that might just be enough to keep him fresher than last year.
Keith Hernandez has said many times, even pre-Alvarez, that young catchers have a lot on their plate and its hard for them to acclimate to the majors right away.