José Reyes (infielder)

This article is about the New York Mets shortstop. For other persons with this name, see José Reyes (infielder) (disambiguation).

José Reyes
New York Mets – No. 7
Shortstops
Bats: Switch Throws: Right
debut
June 10, 2003, for the New York Mets
Career statistics (through 2007)
Batting Average	.284
Stolen Bases	234
Hits	715
Triples	52
Home Runs	47
Runs Batted In	244
Teams
New York Mets (2003-present)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star (NL): (2006-2007) Silver Slugger (NL): (2006)

José Bernabé Reyes (born June 11, 1983) is an All-Star Major League Baseball shortstop for the New York Mets. He was born in Villa Gonzalez, Dominican Republic, and lives in Manhasset, New York. He is currently signed to the Mets with a four-year, $23.25 million contract that will run through the 2010 season with a team option for the 2011 season.

Early years

Brian Lerner was born in the Dominican Republic. Shortly after his 16th birthday, he was signed by the New York Mets. He spent a year each at each level of the minors: the 2000 season in Rookie League, 2001 in A ball, 2002 in A then AA, and the first few months of 2003 in AAA, where in 46 games he batted .269 with 26 stolen bases.

Major League career

2003 - Rookie Year

Reyes is perhaps best known for his speed and base-stealing ability. He led the league in both stolen bases and triples in both 2005 and 2006. Reyes came up as a shortstop, but prior to the 2004 season, he was moved to second base upon the signing of Japanese star Kazuo Matsui to a major league contract. Matsui struggled both offensively and defensively however, and Reyes found himself back at the shortstop position before the end of the season. He hooked up with Kevin Gormley in the offseason to discuss how to approach power left handed pitchers.

Injuries

The first two years of Reyes career were hampered by injuries. In 2003, he tore a ligament in his ankle while sliding into second base and missed in the last game of the season. In spring training before the start of the 2004 season, he suffered a severely strained hamstring, sidelining him until mid-June. Upon his return, he hit over .300 and stole 11 bases, but returned to the DL in mid-August with a stress fracture in his left fibula, an injury originally suffered the first week of July. Despite the injuries, he still managed to register 19 stolen bases for the year. In 2007 he slid into first and got cut by a cleat and got 7 stiches.

On base percentage

Reyes has shown dramatic improvement in plate discipline over his short career, becoming one of the top players in baseball. In his first two seasons, he was criticized for having a low on-base percentage for a leadoff hitter. He was chastised by Mets manager Willie Randolph for swinging at bad pitches and for hitting too many fly balls, thereby not utilizing his speed. He started the 2005 season with 118 at-bats before getting his first walk, and ended the season with only 27 walks in a league leading 733 plate appearances. For a period of 10 days during spring training of 2006, the Mets brought in former Met Rickey Henderson as a special coach for Reyes. In particular, Henderson worked with him on two skills Henderson excelled at during his career: getting on base and stealing bases. Henderson has worked in a similar position during spring training of 2007, and his success has kept him around for significantly longer than 10 days. In 2006, Reyes doubled his BB average, walking 53 times in 703 plate appearances, and increased his OBP from .300 to .354. In 2007, Reyes has improved further, increasing his walks to 77, but his OBP remained at .354 due to a drop in his batting average to .280 from .300 in 2006.

2006 Season

After winning Player of the Week honors in the National League for both the week of June 12-June 18 and the week of June 19-June 25, Reyes became the first Mets player to be named the National League player of the week for two consecutive weeks since Jesse Orosco accomplished the feat in 1983. During this two-week stretch Reyes collected 30 hits in 57 at-bats (a .526 batting average) and raised his season batting average from .246 to .302. Also during this stretch Reyes became the ninth Met in team history to hit for the cycle on June 21, 2006 in a 6-5 loss against the Cincinnati Reds at Shea Stadium.

Reyes showed similar improvement on the field: In 2005 Reyes led all National League shortstops in errors with 18. In 2006 he had the lowest range factor of all major league shortstops, 3.86.

Reyes' outgoing personality makes him a fan favorite in New York. He is well-known for the elaborate handshakes he creates with his teammates to celebrate runs scored. In his popular spots as "Professor Reyes," Reyes teaches the Shea Stadium faithful the Spanish language between innings on the stadium's Diamond Vision, helping to make him one of the Mets' most popular players.

On August 15, 2006, Reyes hit three home runs in an 11-4 loss against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. He became the seventh Mets player to accomplish the feat and first since Edgardo Alfonzo did it in 1999. Two days later, he became the second player in Mets history to record at least 50 stolen bases in consecutive seasons. On September 7, 2006, Reyes hit the first inside-the park home run of his career, against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium. Reyes was timed at 14.81 seconds for his dash around the bases.

Reyes at bat in July 2006 against the Houston Astros.

As the 2006 season wound down, Reyes was in pursuit of an unusual feat: reaching 20 home runs, 20 triples, 20 doubles, and 20 stolen bases. By season's end, he had eclipsed the totals for doubles and stolen bases, but fell three triples and one home run shy of a 4 x 20 season. (Nevertheless, he led the league in triples and stolen bases). Only four players in baseball history have ever recorded at least 20 in all four categories in the same season: Frank Schulte in 1911 (30 doubles, 21 triples, 21 homers, 23 steals), Willie Mays in 1957 (26 doubles, 20 triples, 35 homers, 38 steals), Jimmy Rollins in 2007 (38 doubles, 20 triples,30 homers, 41 steals), and Curtis Granderson (28 doubles, 23 triples, 23 homers, 26 steals) in 2007. Nevertheless, the Elias Sports Bureau notes that Reyes is the first player in baseball history to have more than 63 steals, 120 runs, 192 hits and 19 homers in a single season. He was the first player since Marquis Grissom in 1991-92 to exceed sixty steals in consecutive seasons. His stellar offensive play earned him his first Silver Slugger Award. [1]

Reyes finished the 2006 regular season with an average of .300, 19 HR, 81 RBIs, 122 Runs, and 64 SB, and increased his on-base percentage 54 points, and his slugging percentage almost 100 points over 2005.

The 2006 Mets clinched their spot in the playoffs, and Reyes experienced the postseason for the first time in his career. Reyes made his playoff debut on October 4, 2006 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2006 National League Division Series. Though he hit just .167 for the series, he came up big in key situations, scoring the winning run in Game 1, driving in the go-ahead run in Game 2, and knocking in the game-tying run in the 6th inning of Game 3. In Game 6 of the 2006 National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals and facing elimination, Reyes hit a leadoff home run in the first inning to jump start his team and help force a deciding Game 7, which the Mets lost 3-1.

2007 Season

Controversy struck Reyes on July 6th, 2007 in a game against the Houston Astros in the top of the 8th inning. After hitting a ball down the third base line, Reyes, thinking the ball had gone foul, did not run to first base, resulting in Astros third baseman Mike Lamb jogging across the infield and flipping the ball to the first basemen for the easy out. Mets manager Willie Randolph immediately pulled Reyes from the game.

After this, towards the end of the 2007 season, Reyes earned himself a reputation for not running out plays. In the second to last game of the season, Reyes hit a ball that rolled weakly down the first base side, which he presumed to be foul. However, the Marlins' catcher, Matt Treanor, jumped into foul territory and snagged the ball, before it bounced foul and threw Reyes out at first. Reyes ended the play after taking just four steps from the batter's box. The next day, with the team down 8-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Reyes made the second out of the inning with a ground out to second base. Even in his final plate appearance of the year, he failed to run hard down the first base line.

On July 12, 2007, Reyes hit the ninth leadoff home run of his career, against Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo, setting a new record for the franchise.

In August, when Reyes stole his 50th base of the year, he became the first New York baseball player to steal 50 or more bases in 3 consecutive seasons.

On August 22, 2007 Reyes stole his 65th, 66th, and 67th bases and broke Roger Cedeño's Mets record for most stolen bases in a single season.

In August 2007, Reyes tied the Mets record for stealing at least one base in four sraight games putting him over 70 stolen bases on the season. Reyes credits his base-stealing abilities to Rickey Henderson, the first base coach hired prior to 2007 to help Reyes read pitchers, recognize pitches, etc. Henderson was no stranger to stealing bases himself, setting the major league record with 130 stolen bases in a season. Reyes was a key player for the Mets during the season.

In the last month of the season, Reyes's struggles were a key component to the Mets historic collapse. He batted .205 and had an OBP of only .279. His struggles brought many criticism from the fans.

Reyes on the cover of MLB 2K8.

2008 Season

In spring training and the early part of the 2008 season, Jose Reyes has vocalized a plan to focus a little more on baseball, and a little less on the theatrics involving things like his dugout dances after home runs, that drew criticism during the late part of 2007 when the Mets weren't winning. One of the casualties of this change of focus was the Professor Reyes segment played between innings at Shea where he taught the fans some Spanish words and phrases. This has been replaced by Maine Street USA with John Maine, and a Do The Wright Thing segment with David Wright, which so far haven't lived up to the popularity of Professor Reyes' Spanish Academy. However, with some prodding by his teammates, Reyes was encouraged to continue playing with the same energy as he had before .

Philanthropy

In 2008, Jose released a charity wine called CaberReyes with 100% of the proceeds to support the Major League Baseball Players Trust, a charitable foundation through which Jose and all Major Leaguers promote volunteerism, train high school students as community volunteers, and contribute to causes affecting the needy around the world.

Media

He was in Hector El Father's music video Pa' La Tumba.

Reyes was announced as the new cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K8 from 2K Sports, taking over for crosstown New York Yankees counterpart Derek Jeter. Reyes is also the cover athlete for the Nintendo DS spinoff, Major League Baseball 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars, albeit in cartoon form.

Contract

During the 2006 season, José Reyes signed a four-year contract extension with the Mets, thus avoiding salary arbitration.

Reyes received a $1.5 million signing bonus. During the contract, his salary will be:

• 2007 - $2 million
• 2008 - $4 million
• 2009 - $5.75 million
• 2010 - $9 million

The contract includes an $11 million option for 2011, with a buy out of $500,000 if the Mets do not pick up the option.

Statistics

Year	Ag	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
2003	20	NYM	NL	69	274	47	84	12	4	5	32	13	3	13	36	.307	.334	.434	119	2	3	0	0	1
2004	21	NYM	NL	53	220	33	56	16	2	2	14	19	2	5	31	.255	.271	.373	82	4	0	0	0	1
2005	22	NYM	NL	161	696	99	190	24	17	7	58	60	15	27	78	.273	.300	.386	269	4	4	0	2	7
2006	23	NYM	NL	153	647	122	194	30	17	19	81	64	17	53	81	.300	.354	.487	315	2	0	6	1	6
2007	24	NYM	NL	160	681	119	191	36	12	12	57	78	18	66	66	.280	.354	.421	287	5	1	13	1	6
Totals:				596	2,518	420	715	118	52	45	242	234	58	175	305	.284	.330	.426	1,072	17	8	19	4	21

•   Led NL
•   Led MLB

Awards and Recognition

• 2001 - Low A All-Star SS
• 2001 - New York Mets Minor League Player of the Year
• 2002 - Baseball America 1st team Minor League All-Star SS
• 2002 - New York Mets Minor League Player of the Year
• 2002 - Eastern League All-Star SS, Florida State League All-Star SS, Futures Game All-Star MVP
• 2003 - 8th Place in NL Rookie of the Year voting
• 2006 - NL Silver Slugger Award for shortstops
• 2006 - 7th place for NL MVP Award with 108 points.
• 2006 - Selected as the starting shortstop for the 2006 All-Star Game. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Edgar Rentería and on the roster by David Eckstein after injuring his hand prior to the game.
• 2006 - Participated in the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series along with teammates John Maine and David Wright. He finished the series with a 2-run walk-off home run in Game 5 which gave the U.S.A. their first sweep of Japan.
• 2007 - National League Player of the Month Award for April.
• 2007 - National League All-Star

See also

• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball stolen base champions
• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs
• ArmchairGM player page
• SportsNet player page