St. Louis Cardinals: Will Alex Reyes Win Rookie of the Year?
After a strong debut for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016, Alex Reyes looks to make an impact in 2017 that could result in him winning Rookie of the Year.
The St. Louis Cardinals have one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball in Alex Reyes. He made his major league debut last season and proved to be an incredibly effective pitcher whether he started or was used in relief. Now, he and the Cardinals look to build off his 2016 success in hopes he becomes the superstar everyone is expecting.
Despite pitching in 46 innings in 2016, Reyes still maintains his rookie eligibility for 2017. He began those 46 innings on August 9th against the Cincinnati Reds and pitched one inning in relief. It only took him eleven pitches to get two ground balls and one strikeout. Eight of his eleven pitches were for strikes. He then went on to make four more relief appearances where he didn’t allow a run before he made his first major league start.
Reyes ended up making five starts for 28.2 innings in the 2016 season. He posted a 2-0 win loss record along with a 2.20 ERA (as a starter). In those five starts, he allowed 25 hits and 7 earned runs. Reyes also struck out 29 batters and showed an elite ability to get batters to swing and miss. However, Reyes ran into trouble due to his lack of control as he walked 13 batters as a starter and 10 as a reliever. But, with his talent and ability to strike batters out, he often escaped any issues following a walk.
A lot of his strikeouts were due to the fact that he was blowing away batters with an upper-90’s fastball then stunning them with a curveball in the high-70’s or his deceitful change-up that sat around 88 mph. Reyes’s arm action made his fastball-change-up combo very tough to combat and when he threw his slow curve it really buckled some knees. And despite his control issues, he was still getting swings (27.3%) at pitches that were outside the strike zone which bodes well for his deception.
With all that talent and an incredible arm, Alex Reyes is surely going to be a star. He put up some impressive performances in 2016 and made some great batters look like amateurs and that should lead John Mozeliak and the St. Louis Cardinals to use him as a starter. The starting pitching staff could be any mix of Reyes, Carlos Martinez, Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn, Mike Leake and Michael Wacha so it isn’t quite confirmed Reyes will be a starter.
However, considering he has been a starter his entire career up until his MLB debut, he will likely remain a starter for the majority of 2017. His inexperience coupled with the injury risks throughout the staff, it is likely that the Cardinals implement some kind of 6-man rotation (even though I hate that phrase). With that said, we’ll likely see Reyes make 15-20 starts but then also be used in another 25 or so games as a reliever.
Splitting his time between starting and relieving could harm his chances at the Rookie of the Year award but it shouldn’t be detrimental. Reyes will have some tough competition though considering players like Dansby Swanson of the Atlanta Braves and Tyler Glasnow of the Pittsburgh Pirates will also be gunning for the award. However, Reyes isn’t scared of any challenges considering he has a 3-0 record in 12.1 innings and a 2.19 ERA against the world-champion Chicago Cubs.
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The last player for the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Rookie of the Year was Albert Pujols in 2001. The last pitcher to do so was reliever Todd Worrell in 1986. It’s time for someone on the Cardinals to step up and be the young star all the fans have been waiting for. Who better than Alex Reyes?
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