St. Louis Cardinals: Reacting to Jenifer Langosch’s roster predictions

I didin’t mention one of the biggest pitching ommisions for a reason: Alex Reyes and his status deserves a whole discussion of his own. He has been one of the most highly touted prospects coming out of the Cardinals organization for years, but injury problems have raised questions about how the Cardinals will proceed with Reyes.

At one point, the St. Louis Cardinals were set on having Alex Reyes as a powerful starter who could carry a high-90’s fastball deep into games, and Mike Girsch recently revealed himself that the Cardinals are going to attempt to continue down that path. However, his injury situation has obviously added much depth to the conversation.

Reyes’ has just not been able to get healthy enough to pitch in the majors, which has been incredibly unfortunate. This makes a move to the bullpen seem to make sense, but the St. Louis Cardinals front office sees too much upside in Reyes as a starter to give that path up. There is one thing that makes me optimistic about Reyes, and that’s the fact that none of his major injuries have been in his lower body.

While the recurring nature of these injuries is rather troubling, nothing that is irreversible or would affect his abilities as a pitcher have occurred yet. While they have been major, they have yet to permanently damage his body in the long term in any way. We still expect the same explosiveness and sharpness from his arsenal that we saw in his dominant 2018 minor league run.

The lat tear is something that people might think will have a significant impact, but I have to see it to believe it. I think it is something he will be able to bounce back from with no significant impact on his velocity.

As the sciences and medical technology, we have seen more and more players with the ability to return from multiple major injuries, and hopefully Reyes will be no different. For the first time in his Cardinals tenure, the hype is quiet and the need for Reyes to rush to the Majors is low, so he can take all the time he needs to truly make sure he is ready to go.

I have personally been on the Reyes to the bullpen train for awhile, but I could go either way this season. The bullpen has been bolstered and the starting rotation is acceptable, so the Cardinals can use Reyes however they would like. I would like to see a situation similar to the previously mentioned Austin Gomber, who were used as both a reliever and a rotation starter throughout the season.

Gomber had 11 starts and 18 relief appearances in 2018. giving him a good mixture of exposure while keeping his innings low and providing flexibility for the team. It seemed like a win-win situation for both sides, and I feel this won’t be much different with Alex Reyes.

Using Reyes in this hybrid role would only further benefit what might be this Cardinals team’s best traits: depth and flexibility. For Reyes, this will give him the most exposure while keeping his workload and injury risk to a minimum.

He might not need to get as many as 11 starts, but sinking into a hybrid role where his innings are lower and his options are vast would be a great thing for both Reyes and the St. Louis Cardinals.