Player Profile: Gerardo Reyes

In the massive 3 team blockbuster between the Rays, Nationals and Padres, perhaps the smallest name to move was Gerardo Reyes. the 21 year old, 5’11 righty singed out of Texas JC as an undrafted free agent in August of 2013.

Despite being undersized, Reyes features a mid 90s fastball. His only other effective pitch at the moment is a mediocre and inconsistent slider. If he can’t develop a third pitch he’ll be destined for the pen, but at the moment his fate could fall either way.

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Reyes made his professional debut this past season in the New York Penn League with decent results. In 20 games he pitched 33 innings with an ERA of 4.09 and strikeout rate of 10.64 per 9.

What stands out most is the strikeouts. If he’s able to consistently strike out batters at that high of rate through all levels of the minors and eventually the majors, he has a chance to be a very effective reliever.

One warning sign is that he may be racking up all these strikeouts on his slider, which isn’t fully developed. Young hitters are very susceptible to breaking pitches, so if he fails to develop the pitch any further it might not be as effective against higher levels of competition.

All in all he seems to be a hit or miss prospect. He has the tools to be become an effective middle reliever one day, but likely not much more. Even if he fails to pan out, it won’t make or break this deal for the Padres.