Milwaukee Brewers Sign Versatile Pablo Reyes to Minor League Deal

On Thursday, the Milwaukee Brewers signed the versatile Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.

Buckle up, Milwaukee Brewers fans, the hot stove is heating up! Well, not really, but the Crew did make a very David Stearns-ian type of signing on Thursday, agreeing to a deal with Pablo Reyes to a minor league contract with an invite to major league camp.

Reyes checks two of the major boxes that many of the Milwaukee Brewers’ new additions have; he’s versatile, and he still has two minor league options remaining.

The now 27-year-old Reyes was an international signing by the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2012 and has spent his entire career up to this point in their organization. He began in rookie ball and worked his way up to Triple-A by 2018. Over his minor league career, which spans nearly 2,600 plate appearances, Reyes has a slash line of .278/.351/.421 with 51 home runs and 121 stolen bases.

Reyes would also make his MLB debut in 2018 as well, appearing in 18 games that season with the Pirates — although he spent much of the year in Triple-A — and slashed .293/.349/.483 over 63 plate appearances. Reyes also tallied three home runs and logged an OPS+ of 127 (the league average is 100).

However, 2019 wasn’t as kind to Reyes. He bounced back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues, slashing just .203/.274/.322 with the Pirates, and his OPS+ plummeted to 57.

While Reyes struggled at the plate in 2019, 2020 was even worse as he was popped for PEDs prior to the season beginning and had to serve an 80 game suspension. Although only 60 games were played last season, according to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, because of an agreement between the MLB and MLBPA, Reyes’ suspension is considered fully served.

This, of course, raises a big red flag, but as Stearns told reporters on Thursday, the Brewers did their vetting, and they do not see this being an issue moving forward:

"“On any signing of this sort, we’re clearly going to do our homework. This is a player who made a mistake, who has a reputation and background as someone [for whom] we believe this was an isolated mistake. So we’ll move forward.”"

While Reyes doesn’t have a lot of big league experience, in that short time he has played every position defensively except for first base, pitcher, and catcher. However, it’s worth noting that he was primarily a second baseman and a shortstop in the minor leagues and has spent a majority of his time in the outfield at the big league level. This versatility coupled with “a pretty significant level of production,” as Stearns put it, and this is a signing that the Brewers are excited about:

"“Players who can move around the field, clearly we think it’s important,” Stearns said via MLB.com. “The interesting part of Pablo’s background is this is a player who, at 24 years old [in 2018], showed a pretty significant level of production in a short time at the MLB level. That’s pretty unique. To get him back playing, to give him a chance, it’s something we wanted to do.”"

After a year off from baseball, Reyes will likely need to get a number of at-bats under his belt in order to get back into form. But with those minor league options still available, Milwaukee has that added flexibility of having him begin the season in Triple-A. From there, we will have to wait and see how things play out for him.