Free Agent Signing – Jose Reyes

The Miami Marlins have landed one of their main targets by signing shortstop Jose Reyes to a 6 year, $106 million dollar deal! There is also an optional 7^th year for the 28 year old Reyes that could bring the total contract to $124 million. If the baseball world didn’t take the Marlins seriously after signing Heath Bell to be their new closer, they better start taking them seriously now. The Marlins are making some great moves and if they sign another pitcher and hitter like they say they will, look out National League!

Jose Reyes is coming off his best offensive season, but as usual, he was hurting for a good portion of it. Reyes’ second half numbers reflect his leg injury (he has a long history of hamstring issues), and there was a big drop off in his speed categories (stolen bases and triples). Most top players regularly have an amazing month or two each season, but Reyes was having a first half (3 months) for the ages. By July he already had 15 triples alone! Then, on July 2^nd, he severely strained his left hamstring and the rest of the season was a struggle just to stay on the field (he went on the DL on July 3rd and a second time on August 8^th). Reyes was able to get his hitting stroke back for the last month of the season, but you can see he didn’t push his hamstring. He ran as little as possible.

Reyes 2011 Season Month by Month:

April: 36 for 117 (.308 Avg), .344 OBP, 18 Runs, 2 triples, 8 SB

May: 40 for 110 (.364 Avg), .421 OBP, 18 Runs, 6 triples, 11 SB

June: 45 for 117 (.385 Avg), .425 OBP, 29 Runs, 7 triples, 11 SB

July: 19 for 66 (.288 Avg), .304 OBP, 13 Runs, 1 triple, 2 SB

Aug: 8 for 30 (.267 Avg), .290 OBP, 4 Runs, 0 triples, 3 SB

Sept: 33 for 97 (.340 Avg), .443 OBP, 19 Runs, 0 triples, 4 SB

This 2011 season really sums up what you get with Jose Reyes nicely. When his legs are healthy, Reyes is maturing to be one of the most devastating top of the order offensive players in the game. When his legs aren’t healthy, he is fighting to stay on the field. And even when he does play, Reyes is not giving you all the offense you expect from him. Of course, when he is playing “gingerly” this also negatively impacts his defense at shortstop, arguably the most critical defensive position on the field.

Most baseball people think the Marlins are probably going to regret giving a 6 or 7 year deal to an often injured player like Jose Reyes. But, it seems that nearly every analysts ignores, or conveniently forgets, the years that Reyes stayed healthy and on the field. For the 4 year period 2005 to 2008, Reyes averaged over 158 games played per season! Granted, Reyes is going to be hurt at some point during the contract, but even if he ends up missing an average of 25 games a season this move still makes sense to me. Two of my favorite baseball websites that agree; Fangraphs.com has Reyes ranked as the 15^th best position player while Baseball-Reference has him listed at 13^th. You have to believe that Reyes will continue to perform at that level over the life of the contract. All indications are that the Marlins are building a team that is going to be competitive for the lifetime of this contract, which will also help Reyes maintain his drive to perform well. If I had to point at one stat to show how Reyes is maturing as a hitter, it is his increased contact rate. He only struck out 41 times last year in 586 plate appearances. He has learned to work to his strengths, make contact and not get himself out.

I am a huge Reyes fan, and if I were starting a team from scratch (either real life or fantasy team) he would be on the very short list of shortstops I would covet. There are only a handful of two-way shortstops in the game today (impact players on both offense and defense).  The top 3 shortstops are Troy Tulowitzki, Hanley Ramirez and Reyes. So if the Marlins already had Ramirez why did they sign Reyes?

The past couple of years the Marlins had been giving serious consideration to moving Ramirez from shortstop. Ramirez has been adding muscle to his 6 foot 3 frame and his physique has definitely thickened (Ramirez is listed as a solid 230 pounds). Ramirez also has had a history of lacking focus while playing defense, ever since his 26 error rookie season. Ramirez has cut down on his errors the past couple of seasons but his range has noticeably been slowly shrinking. And perhaps, it’s not that the Marlins truly needed a short stop, but rather they desperately need a third basemen. Last year, the third base position provided 6 homeruns and an OPS of .662 for the Marlins (yuck). By acquiring an elite shortstop in Reyes, this gives the Marlins an easy rational to move Ramirez over to third base without causing any hard feelings.

Luckily, Hanley Ramirez is already a good buddy with Jose Reyes, which helps in a situation like this. Plus, with great shortstops like Cal Ripken and AROD also having made this type of positional shift during their careers, it becomes that much easier to sell the move to Ramirez. If for some reason Ramirez doesn’t handle the transition to third base, he is such a good athlete he would be able to move to a corner outfield spot without any problems. Personally, I see Ramirez and Reyes forming one of the most dynamic left sides of the infield in history!

Along with a dynamic left side of the infield, the Marlins are starting to create a juggernaut team, especially on the offensive side! Right now, if I were the new manager Ozzie Guillen, I would make out the lineup card as follows (and yes, I understand the Marlins probably signed Reyes with the intent to be their leadoff hitter):

1)     CF Emilio Bonifacio S (age 26)

2)     SS Jose Reyes S (age 28)

3)     3B Hanley Ramirez R (age 27)

4)     RF Mike Stanton R (age 22)

5)     LF Logan Morrison L (age 24)

6)     1B Gaby Sanchez R (age 28)

7)     C John Buck R (age 31)

8)     2B Omar Infante R (age 29)

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself, and also unbelievably young! Now, if the Marlins really are able to add an Albert Pujols or even a Prince Fielder at first base, I say that would make this lineup arguably the best in the National league. Pujols or Fielder would slide into the cleanup spot moving down Stanton and Morrison one spot. That would also give the Marlins a decent trade chip in Gaby Sanchez to help bolster their pitching staff. The signing of Reyes has to make the team significantly more attractive to both Pujols and Fielder. Who wouldn’t drool over the prospect of having both Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes batting in front of you?

Reyes’ signing also indicates how poorly his old team the New York Mets are really doing. The GM Sandy Alderson admitted the Mets never even made Reyes a formal contract offer! Alderson also stunningly said that the organization lost $70 million dollars over the season. How can the Mets honestly make any big contract offers when they have the Bernie Madoff case still hovering over the Wilpon family (the Mets majority owners) and the organization is supposedly hemorrhaging that kind of money? You just have to feel bad for the Met fans that are going to suffer over the next couple of seasons.

The biggest reason for the Reyes signing is the Marlins making a push to get their fans excited. The Marlins have a new name (Miami Marlins), a new stadium, a new uniform (have you seen them yet?), a new manager (Ozzie Guillen) and a new closer (Heath Bell). And now one of the most exciting players in the game to watch. The Marlins are trying to get their fans to come to the new ballpark, hopefully in droves. Signing big name free agents like Jose Reyes is one way to accomplish that. But take it from me, the best method to do this is to simply start winning!