St. Louis Cardinals sign LH reliever Dennys Reyes; righthanders shine
JUPITER, Fla. _ It was a good day for the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen today, both on and off the field.
After four righthanded relievers blanked the Dominican Republic team for the last four innings of a 4-1 exhibition victory, the club announced the signing of 31-year-old free-agent lefthander Dennys Reyes to fortify a weak southpaw side of the bullpen.
Reyes agreed to a two-year deal worth a total of approximately $3 million. But Reyes, who had a 2.33 earned run average and held opposing lefthanded hitters to a .202 average last year while pitching for Minnesota, won’t be available for a while. He will pitch for the Mexico team in the World Baseball Classic and could be away from Cardinals camp for two weeks or longer.
“He definitely solidifies our bullpen,” said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. “One of the things we tried to do in the off-season was upgrade from the left side. This gives us the ability to do that.”
Reyes has been in the majors 10-plus seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati, Colorado, Texas, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Kansas City, San Diego and Minnesota. He spent three seasons with Minnesota, and during that span had the lowest ERA (2.14) among lefthanded relievers in the majors.
Righthanded relievers Ryan Frankln, Chris Perez, Josh Kinney and Jason Motte blanked the Dominicans on one hit over the last five innings after righthander Todd Wellemeyer worked four innings of one-run ball. No Cardinals pitcher issued a walk.
(17 votes, average: 4.82 out of 5)
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Well, it may be hard to believe, but believe it — last year against lefties Reyes was .202/.250/.267 ! and in facing 101 batters, Reyes walked 5, and had a WHIP of 1.19.
However we got him, good for the Cards!
Good signing. Denny has had good stats as a LH. Watched him pitch for Albuquerque in the minors on his way up. Reminds me of Fernando V. in looks and actions.
Very nice!! Good job Cards..on and off the field!!
Its nice to see a nice SOLID addition to our bull pen. A guy with this expeience and proven track record does solidify from the left side. I think Reyes can also work with the two youngsters and give them some “fatherly” advice as well. The Cardinals really haven’t had a specialist like this since Steve Kline and Ray King.
I know he has been in the league for 10 years and when you get to that stage in your career there are risk with worn out arms and injuries. But Duncan can resurect those who are willing to listen and learn.
Remember Cardinal nation its all about pitching, pitching, PITCHING!!!!
Nice signing Cards! I’ve followed the Twins for the past couple years closely and Dennys great. Over the off-season this is the one move I hoped the Redbirds would make to contend. Why Reyes took so long to be picked up is beyond me. The guy flys undcer the radar and just gets the job done.
Darn, we could have had him for 5 million back in December, when redbird nation was frustrated and restless. Anyway, this is a solid signing and definitely worth the wait. I still see some room for a trade and or other pickups, but it also depends on how well some of the current spring roster players are playing.
3 years does not a pitcher make when he has been in the league for 10+ years. If this article would have covered his career average stats this pitcher has a .500 record & an ERA average of 4+.
Yeah, now that is an upgrage (NOT).
Hey Hummel, did MO help you write this. Way to dig deep & get some long term stats. Never ceases to amaze me how the PD staff walks around with TP to wipe the Cards Front Office derrier.
Reyes career#’s in the Majors is 32W - 32L with a 4.46 ERA
Not impressive when you look at the whole career IS IT?
FYI I got my stats from Baseballreference.com
Apparently it is a little tough for some sports writers to check that site.
FYI Ron Villone at the end of 08 had a career #’s of 56W - 59L & an 4.75 ERA - basically the Cardinals just replaced an apple with an apple.
Villone had been in the league for 14yrs vs Reyes 12yrs.
Izzy had some good stats too.. & look what he got us.. if Wainright hadn’t fill in as closer we wouldn’t have went all the way in 06.
Maybe you dilusional Cards Fans will actually take the time to look at Reyes ENTIRE career instead of Cherry Picking the “Good Stats”.
3 red flags pop-up regarding Reyes. 1) even though he has been with Minnesota for the past 3 years, he has been with a total of 10 teams in ten years. 2) If his ERA average over the last 3 years is the best in majors for left handers, why is he only making 1.5m a year? 3) Finally, why is he signing so late? Again, for only 3 million.
man that diehardcardfan sure is smarter than everyone else! If you look at Ryan Ludwick’s career numbers he’d still be in the minor leagues!
diehardcardsfan also posted the same stuff on espn.com
reyes’ best years have been the last three years…it’s not like he pitched like this 10 years ago…
villone walked 37 guys in 50 innings last year…reyes walked 15 in 46 innings….that alone is a significant upgrade
craig, the market has been real slow with the left handed relief pitchers…beimel and ohman are still out there…the value of these pitchers have dropped significantly…
for once the cardinals front office looks pretty darn smart for waiting out the LH relief market and not succumbing to fans’ demands and signing the guy for 4 or 5 mil a year…