St. Louis Cardinals Alex Reyes Suspended 50 Games

There were few big name pitchers in the Arizona Fall League with St. Louis Cardinals’ right-hander Alexander Reyes and Oakland Athletics’ lefty Sean Manaea headlining the list. For Saturday’s Fall Stars game these two were scheduled to face-off against one another, but Reyes was removed from the Surprise roster a day prior to the game for undisclosed reasons. On Monday we found out why.

Major League Baseball announced that Reyes, a 21-year-old who spent some time in Double-A in 2015, was to be suspended for 50 games for testing positive for marijuana use for a second time. Reyes released this statement after the announcement:

In 2015 Reyes split time between Rookie Ball (1 start), Hi-A and Double-A, making a combined 22 starts between the three stops. He totaled 101.1 innings and held a combined ERA of 2.49 and a strikeout per nine rate of 13.4, which is extremely high. His walk rate was also a bit high at 4.4, but nonetheless, Reyes is the Cardinals’ #1 prospect and #16 in baseball. Quite possibly the most impressive stat with Reyes is that he only allowed one home run in 2015 as he climbed through the Minor League system.

So what does this mean for Reyes’ development and his MLB timeline? According to Brian Walton of The Cardinal Nation, making the Triple-A team in Memphis out of spring training next season would have been a realistic goal. Walton also states that the remaining ten games left on the Arizona Fall League schedule will count towards the suspension, leaving 40 games remaining and a mid-May return as a strong possibility. Walton guesses that Reyes will be added to the Memphis roster despite the suspension, but it will surely be a judgement call by the organization.

Next: Fall Stars Game Filled With Homers

With mid-May being the timeframe for Reyes to make his season debut, even if he starts the year in Triple-A, there may be just enough time for him to make his big-league debut in September depending on how he performs. MLB Pipeline lists an estimated time of arrival in the big leagues as 2017, and if Reyes doesn’t make it to St. Louis sooner, then the 2017 season is certainly within his reach.

In four Fall League starts (15 innings), Reyes was 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA, 10 walks and 14 strikeouts.