Prospect Watch: Samuel Reyes Looking to Build in Skills in Bullpen
When the Pittsburgh Pirates were looking at Dominican Republic pitching prospect Samuel Reyes, they received some insight from an inside source. He is the younger brother of Pablo Reyes, giving him an inside route to the Pirates organization. Since signing back in 2016, he has had to transition from a starting pitcher to a relief pitcher and has seen success in the bullpen. It has allowed him to just let it fly rather than trying to keep his velocity up over the course of an entire game. Some times a step back is good for a player, and it benefitted Reyes as he took a demotion last season.
When many thought he would make the move to Advanced-A, the Pirates decided to keep Reyes in Low-A ball with the Greensboro Grasshoppers to start the 2019 season. He ended up eventually making the move to Advanced-A by the end of the season and combined to put up a 2.29 ERA in 35 appearances, 33 starts. He went from a long-reliever to a shorter reliever and as a result, saw his strikeout rate jump tremendously from the season before. He walked just 23 batters in 70.1 innings of work and dropped his opponent's batting average by nearly 50 points to .196 during the season.
With Pablo Reyes already being in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, the Pirates already had their eye on Samuel Reyes as he was developing in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic. He caught the Pirate's eye with his velocity as he regularly hit between 94 and 95 mph on his fastball. Not only that, but he had a five-pitch mix with all five of them being pretty developed. His arsenal contained a fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, and splitter. He mixed them pretty well and the Pirates felt like they could help him develop into a top pitching talent. He would sign with Pittsburgh on July 2nd, 2016, and made his professional debut in rookie ball the next season.
He started his professional career with the Dominican Summer League Pirates and appeared in five games out of their bullpen. After throwing a scoreless 1.2 innings in his debut, Reyes made the transition to professional ball look easy. He didn't give up more than two earned runs in any of his five outings and ended up posting a 4.66 ERA. It was the two games where he gave up two earned runs that spiked his ERA and made his stats look worse than they actually were. His strikeout rate was good with 10 in 9.1 innings of work and he showed command of all five of his pitches by walking just one batter.
In his final appearance with the DSL Pirates, he pitched 1.1 scoreless innings while allowing three hits and striking out one. He would earn a promotion to the Gulf Coast League Pirates at the end of June he would appear in 16 games for the GCL Pirates and improved his stats dramatically. In 34 innings of work, he went 1-1 while posting a 2.65 ERA working mostly as a long-reliever. It seemed the deeper he worked into the games, the more his strikeout rate would go down. He struck out just 24 batters during the season, but he was able to keep his opponent's at bay as they hit just .229 off of him. The one thing that stayed consistent was his good control as he had a walk rate of just 2.8% that season.
The month of August was his best of the 2017 season as he pitched to a 2.07 ERA in 21.2 innings of work, spanning eight outings. Of those eight outings, five of them were shutout appearances as he used his velocity to blow the competition away. That off-season, Reyes continued to improve working in the Instructional League and honing his skills while working on his off-speed pitches. His fastball was his bread and butter, and he was trying to build his supplemental pitches to be able to build off of them. The Pirates would move him to Class Low-A West Virginia in 2018 to see how his stuff would translate to the higher levels of the Minor League system.
He improved his numbers drastically while working about the same workload that season. In 43 innings of work, Reyes posted a 2.72 ERA while making 18 appearances, two of those being starts. The Power stopped using him in the three to four-inning relief appearances and limited him to one to two-inning outings. His strikeout rate continued to trend downward as he struck out just 36 batters. He started to work in his off-speed stuff and kept opposing hitters off balance allowing an opponent batting average of .243, down almost 20 points from the previous season. However, with the development of his new off-speed pitches came some struggles with control as he walked 13 batters that season.
It didn't take much time for Reyes to transition to full-season ball as his first three appearances were scoreless outings. He worked out of the bullpen for most of the season and was having a lot of success, so the Power decided to move him into their starting rotation by the end of the season. It was a move that ended up not working out for Reyes as he struggled in two starts. He pitched to a 4.09 ERA in those two starts, with his first one being much worse than his second. He made his first start of the season on August 25th and gave up five earned runs in five innings of work on eight hits while striking out two. He bounced back in his second start striking out seven over six innings of work and ended his season on a positive note.
Because of his success, many thought he would be promoted to Advanced-A Bradenton at the end of the season, but instead, he was sent back to low-a ball. This time with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, he would move back to the bullpen and was almost unhittable in 10 appearances. He posted a 0.52 ERA in 17.1 innings of work while walking one batter and striking out 23. The increase in strikeout rate was nice to see and he held his opposition to just an 0.73 batting average. His control still struggled as he walked eight batters, but it still wasn't where it was at the start of his career.
His success forced the Pirate's hand and they ended up promoting him to Advanced-A Bradenton in early May. His transition came with a few struggles as his ERA went up to 2.87, but for the most part, he was still an effective reliever. His strikeout rate would rebound as he fanned 50 batters in 53.1 innings of work. He started working in long relief but found that when he worked in shorter stints he became more effective. This was evident by his work in August where he made six appearances and posted a 1.28 ERA in 14 innings of work. While he was once thought of as being a long-relief option, he may be transitioning into a power arm in the back-end of the bullpen.
As he waits for baseball to return, Reyes is anxiously waiting for a chance to return to the Bradenton bullpen. As we look ahead to 2021, he will probably be back in the Marauders bullpen working as a late-inning reliever. If he continues to succeed the way he has been in the past, he will more than likely get his shot at Double-A Altoona by the end of the season. This is where the Pirates will see if it was his velocity that drove his success, or if he has what it takes to be a Major League pitcher as opposed to just a guy who can throw hard.
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