PORT ST. LUCIE – I have seen the future of National League All-Star shortstops and his name is Jose Reyes.
At 9:35 yesterday morning on a sun-splashed Florida day, the 6-0, 160-pound Reyes, wearing No. 7 on his back, glides to his position in an empty Thomas J. White Stadium.
Fellow Mets infielder Ty Wiggington is at first base. Wiggington played this winter in the Dominican with Reyes. Asked to describe his teammate, he offers one word: “Unbelievable.” The only other people in the silent stadium are infield coach Matt Galante, who will hit ground balls to Reyes, two photographers and myself.
This will be Reyes’ first work as a Met this year, the first post-Rey Ordonez baby steps of what promises to be an Amazin’ career and the first serious workout since Reyes injured his hamstring one month ago.
He comes through in brilliant fashion. Here’s what you will see when you get to watch Reyes play for the first time. His footwork is phenomenal, fast and sure; his balance perfect and his arm strong. As for his glove, his soft hands are the place where ground balls go to die.
Reyes doesn’t catch the ball as much as he caresses it. In an instant, the baseball has been transferred from leather to lightning, fired to first base.
Art Howe has admitted he is “drooling” over Reyes, but yesterday he purposefully stayed away from his first look at his phenom, telling me, “I didn’t want to go over there and put any extra pressure on the kid,” which is a credit to Howe’s managing style.
The Mets insist they want Reyes to get AAA-experience before calling him up, but if they do, it won’t be much. Reyes will be 20 come June 11. Fifteen years ago in Yuma, AZ, I watched another teenage minor-league middle infielder for the first time and knew immediately he too was bound for stardom. His name? Robbie Alomar.
I ask Reyes who is his baseball hero? “Robbie Alomar,” he says. The game is a circle.
Reyes has God-given talent, but he works hard to make the most of that talent. “He loves to work,” explains Gary LaRocque, the Mets’ director of scouting. “And he has no fear at all.”
In the Dominican, Reyes would tie a rope to his waist. At the end of that rope would be an old automobile tire. He would run and drag the tire behind him. “That’s what we do to get faster,” he says.
His first glove was a milk carton that he shaped into a glove. That is how many Dominican shortstops learn to get soft hands.
After 30 seamless ground balls from Galante, Reyes heads over to an adjacent field for batting practice. He’s worked only two years from the left side yet has made steady progress hitting down on the ball to utilize his speed. Batting right-handed, he lashes liners into the gaps, showing how he produced 34 triples the last two years. Shea’s power alleys are made for him.
One of those triples came in his first game in Binghamton last season after his promotion from Class-A St. Lucie. That triple was his fifth hit of the day. As Reyes dove into third base the entire section of fans along the line gave him a standing ovation, yelling, “You’re the real deal!”
I’ve yet to see Reyes hit a triple, but yesterday morning, I joined that chorus.