JUPITER, Fla. (KMOX) - The St. Louis Cardinals won't release an official Opening Day 25-roster until next week, but pieces are beginning to fall into place and it appears top prospect Alex Reyes has earned himself a spot.
"I think Alex has more than proved himself," says manager Mike Shild. "He's in a great spot, looks good."
And his spot is going to be in the bullpen, with the starting rotation down to just Dakota Hudson and John Gant fighting for the fifth spot, behind Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Michael Wacha and Adam Wainwright.
"He wants to pitch in the big leagues," Shildt said. "Even if we could have built you up as a starter, the reality was you haven't pitched in two years and how are we going to think about you carrying the load of a starter? So, lets get you healthy, get you in big-league competition and go from there."
Reyes is expected to be in Milwaukee for the opener on March 28 and he'll be armed with at least four pitches: Fastball, change-up, curve and a slider that he picked up during last year's rehad starts.
"Yesterday he had the slider and the change-up going, what a nice thing," Shildt says.
This spring, Reyes has allowed four runs on four hits in six inning during Grapefruit League play. He struck out six and walked five of the 26 hitters he's faced.
Shildt says he expects Reyes to pitch in one more game this spring, then will pitch again in Memphis for the exhibition game on Monday against the Triple-A Redbirds. If that goes well, it would complete a spring training for Reyes that Shildt says is almost perfect.
"If you're in the bullpen you want to be the guy in the ninth inning with that ball, but again it's wherever the team needs me," Reyes said.
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