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News: Mets Sign Al Reyes
By Regis Courtemanche - Aug 20, 2008 3:48 pm

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Mets have signed free-agent RHP Al Reyes.

The 38-year-old Reyes was the closer for the Rays last year, and had 26 saves.

Over 26 games this season, Reyes was 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA.

136 Responses to “News: Mets Sign Al Reyes”

  1. One Day This Team Will Kill Me says:

    The Post is reporting Reyes is a Met. This is a no brainer, switching to the NL, almost a K per inning, cheap and a former closer. Out of the options we have, this is a good one to fall in our lap

  2. No_Brain_Willie says:

    Rotoworld.com also reports the deal.

  3. Nightlife says:

    Can I order a Reyes jersey with interchangeable numbers?

  4. guierllNO MOta says:

    This was a no-brainer, and should put an end to the Eddie Kunz nonsense. We now have added 2 major league succesful relievers for the playoff push while giving up NOTHING

    • Tidewater says:

      Whaddya mean nothing???? Anderson Hernandez is a career sub-.200 hitter. You don’t come by those every day, you know.

      • guierllNO MOta says:

        Shoot….good point…how did we ever let Chip Ambres go eitehr?!?!?!?! haha. or Royce Ring…he was our future closer in 2003 when we got him for Alomar….fire Omar!

  5. bkfitz says:

    Hopefully Sherman is correct that he has been signed. This is encouraging. I’m glad that they didn’t let his arrest (from a bar fight. Charges were eventually dropped) stop them.

  6. ToastyJoe says:

    Now all we need is Derek Jeter and ARod, and we’ll have 3 kings and a pair of queens.

    ZING!!!!

  7. guierllNO MOta says:

    Why would a bar fight stop them…..Castro was accused of raping a woman a few years back in PIT when he was a Marlin

  8. machinegunfunk says:

    between ayala and reyes we have two guys who would’ve made our bullpen unbeatable if it were 2004.

    let’s hope they can get lucky/hot for 6 weeks. better options than kunz or muniz surely.

  9. Gina says:

    I wonder why the Rays released him, those numbers really don’t seem that bad. Or maybe they just look decent to me because of what our bullpen looks like.

  10. ExileInLA says:

    Who gets cut — Stokes?
    Or do they send Cancel back down and go with 13 pitchers?

    • bkfitz says:

      I would think they send down Cancel. They need more pitchers at this point than hitters.

      • starz31 says:

        That makes too much sense though, so they will prolly instead bring up a 4th catcher.

      • hyperion4 says:

        Cancel will probably go when Castillo is activated. I can’t see them sending Argenis Reyes down. The problem is that you just can’t rely on Castro not getting hurt.

        • CleonJones says:

          As far as Castro is concerned, let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Send Cancel down, period. When Castro gets hurt, put him on the DL if necessary, and then bring Cancel back up at that time. No need to over analyze this or micro manage for some contingency that may never happen… although I would agree with you that the likelihood of Castro getting hurt is at least as good as our bullpen imploding every other day. I think it’s more important we have the extra pitcher right now than a 3rd catcher.

  11. rogasm says:

    Wouldn’t they just put Wagner on the DL?

  12. beltran the warrior says:

    great signing. low risk, potential high short-term reward. good job, omar.

  13. dominicanboy08 says:

    “Reyes, who has not pitched since Aug. 5, will be sent to the minors to work himself back into condition.”

    I thought he will be ready to pitch right away

    • starz31 says:

      Yea, I thought so too…but I guess let him throw a few innings first in AAA. We’ll prolly see him in Shea within a week.

  14. Knuckles99 says:

    The 3 r migos. Ha! That is just silly!

    Hey, I ran into Larry “Chipper” Jones in Manhattan today as I was buying a few suits. Got his autograph on a ball as there was a Moddell’s across the street. Thought it was interesting.

    • starz31 says:

      Thats kinda interesting. You should cracked him in the face.

      But seriously, was he polite and friendly? just curious.

    • LL says:

      Screw Larry. I hate that S.O.B. I would have nailed him with the ball right between the eyes right after he signed it. Then I would’ve shoved it down his throat. I can’t believe he has the audacity to walk around the streets of NY. What an a-hole!

    • I can top that: Saw Mr/Mrs Piazza yesterday – they were riding bikes down the west side near pier 40. He’s a bigger dude than I thought. He was checking out my Mets lid. We didn’t chat I was on the move.

      • Knuckles99 says:

        No, Larry is pretty cool. I told him I was more impressed that I found a suit store that actually has suits in my size (6′5″) over getting his autograph as I am a Mets fan, he laughed. And I said, I find it extremely funny that you named your child Shea. Nice guy. looks old though.

        • Knuckles99 says:

          He is actually going to be at the same store tomorrow if you guys are interested. Porto Fino Suits, by Grand Central.

  15. bkfitz says:

    Reyes Checklist:

    Jose………..[X]
    Argenis……[X]
    Al……………..[X]
    Dennys……[...]
    Anthony……[...]
    Jo-Jo………..[...]

    • ravi3 says:

      in time my friend….in time…

      Meanwhile, they should also corner the Carlos Market:

      Guillen
      Gonzales
      Zambrano
      Gomez

      …as someone else posted, all we need is Carlos Reyes

    • molder says:

      VERY well done….sent that to my boss and you could hear him cracking up

  16. whatdatmean says:

    As underwhelming as these last 2 moves may seem….
    THEY ARE HUGE!!!!

    7 man BP
    1. al reyes immedietly takes over as the closer….yes, you heard me
    2+3.felciano + smith setup
    4. ayala is their go-to RP[he just looks nasty]…we need him to get the key outs[more important than setup]
    5. show remains the loogy
    6. heilman will try not to suck[face it, he's in the BP atleast till next ]year
    7…1 spot left for the old dirty sanchez….hopefully he hits the DL to rest up the home stretch
    using stokes or parnell for the last spot[we need another RP that throws hard w/good movement]

    that’s almost liveable…and 100x better than when wags 1st went down

    by the way…can someone take out castillo to end his “return”…i like this team the way it is. if nothing else, let him collect splinters!

    • D in Ben Lomond says:

      I think a key point by Cohen Darling last night was that we don’t necessarily need out closer for the 9th. Based on that reasoning. I think Mota was sort-of our closer in 06. he came in during the big spots to get outs. So lets not put whoever the closer is in the 9th inning all the time. Go with the hot hand in the big spot.

      Depending on the situation, I feel ok (as much as one could given the track record) with Scho, Heilman, Ayala, Feliciano, and maybe Reyes too in the big spots. Smith needs to be used situationally (preferably with the best IF D, and Sanchez needs to rest to see if he can get more velocity. i trust Duanar less than Heilman at this point because at least Aaron has been putting some movement on the ball. That leaves stokes for long relief. Who’d I miss?

      Whew, Thanks Omar, I wasnt crazy about seeing Maine in the pen. This hopefully puts an end to that for now.

      What do you think Gary Cohen? Tell us tonight.

  17. shannon says:

    he was signed to a minor-league contract

    • The Slider says:

      Ohhhhhh.

    • reyesnwright says:

      I think that’s more because he hasn’t pitched in 15 days and just needs to throw some down there to get his arm back in shape. As long as he does OK down there, he will be up soon (September 1st at the latest).

  18. The Slider says:

    Ok. Sounds good to me.

    Can the guy still throw hard?

  19. backinbusiness says:

    Reyes was accused of fighting with and spitting blood at patrons while celebrating his 38th birthday at a Tampa bar, and police subdued him by using a taser.

    Hot! Scary psycho reliever!

  20. lil pelf says:

    what song does he come out to?

  21. Mets Fan on Wall St. says:

    The Ayala signing and this one make me feel more confident about this team. Last year in the midst of doing everything we could to boot games away we stuck with same tired relievers and didn’t admit that there were problems.

    Calling out the relievers in the press, signing a couple of different arms, giving rookies a chance with playing time, in general trying to tinker and tweak things to keep the team going is what was so sorely lacking last year even before September.

    • kistics says:

      Yeah. Maybe this signing and calling them out sets a fire underneath them to perform better.

  22. hbean says:

    YES, the all reyes game ending double play is now possible!

    Reyes with the pitch…weak grounder to Reyes at shortstop…the toss to Reyes at second…the throw to Reyes covering first…

    Ok so Delgado is more likely to be at first then Reyes, but I can dream! lol

    • One Day This Team Will Kill Me says:

      A grounder between 1st and second that Delgado would go for and miss would make it possible with a nice play

  23. whatdatmean says:

    top 9th-runner on 1st….
    bunt or slow chopper to 1st base side…
    delgado charges, but al reyes fields it…
    throws to j reyes at 2b for one, then a quick throw to 1st
    a reyes covers…
    DOUBLE PLAY!!!!!

    METS WIN THE SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!![crowd goes wild]

    …sorry…too far ahead of myself?

  24. dcmetsfan says:

    If you look at his gamelogs, Reyes allowed zero earned runs in 20 of 26 appearances, and four of the 11 runs he gave up came in one game. Granted, I don’t know how mahy inherited runs he gave up, but that suggests that he’s still fairly reliable. Anyway, definitely worth a shot.

  25. guigsy says:

    Is it safe to say that Omar Minaya is the most racist GM in history? Maybe biased is the better word. I know Latino’s are some of the greatest ballplayers around, but don’t you think this is a littttle over the top?

    56 Luis Ayala
    25 Pedro Feliciano
    45 Pedro Martinez
    46 Oliver Perez
    50 Duaner Sanchez
    57 Johan Santana
    40 Robinson Cancel
    11 Ramon Castro
    21 Carlos Delgado
    4 Argenis Reyes
    7 Jose Reyes
    15 Carlos Beltran
    10 Endy Chavez
    17 Fernando Tatis
    Luis Castillo
    El Duque
    Tony Armas
    Ambiorix Burgos
    Moises Alou
    Angel Pagan
    Al Reyes

    This could very well be the roster of the Dominican National team in Beijing. I know, they’re not ALL Dominican.

    • dcmetsfan says:

      I know I shouldn’t even dignify the comment, who bleeping cares? They could sign the entire Dominican baseball team and I wouldn’t care as long as they finished first. Give me a break.

    • backinbusiness says:

      But they ARE (seemingly) all ex-Expos! That Omar Minaya. A real Exexpoist.

    • One Day This Team Will Kill Me says:

      now lets name all the white people in the mets organization that Omar may or may not have acquired

    • Nightlife says:

      WHOA.

      Maybe you are on to something here. Let’s call up AACLU, NAACP and get Mike Wallace ready for the 60 Minutes story. They could also just rehash that one Andy Rooney bit at the end about how he doesn’t care about baseball anymore because of the weird last names.

      • The Slider says:

        Are you saying that Latino last names are “weird.”

        Weird how? (In a Joe Pesci accent)

        • Nightlife says:

          Weird, foreign its all the same thing, man.

          “There all named Rodriguez to me these days!!”

          Wait, maybe guigsy IS Andy Rooney.

        • The Slider says:

          Dude, I’m trying to help you out and you dig yourself in deeper.

          Oh well.

        • Nightlife says:

          If you hadn’t noticed by the initial post I made responding to this idiot, I’ve been sarcastic, man.

        • anrst says:

          can’t forget: Jose Lima – Jermi Gonzalez – Jose Valentin – Ruben Gotay and Julio Franco

        • Nightlife says:

          And basically paraphrasing Andy Rooney’s dumb comments, not my own.

    • kistics says:

      Yeah.. what’s so bad about signing more Latino players? As long as they can play well and help the team, I don’t see any problem with it. Omar probably has advantage over other GMs in that regards, because he is a Latin American, which I think is actually good for the Mets.

      • D in Ben Lomond says:

        I don’t think this is any form of reverse discrimination.

        Omar and Phillips openly talk about getting players that reflect their market strategy, so they can sell more tickets and all that junk. All teams do it to some extent.

        That said, I don’t think Omar is going to turn down picking up quality anglo. Its a mix of strategy and randomness if that makes sense.

    • LL says:

      If we did have he All-Dominican team we wouldn’t be complaining about anything, trust me!!! Our division lead would be so huge. We would crush everyone!!! We could only be so lucky!

    • uppertank says:

      moron…

    • Mingo says:

      You better go look at the 2004 Expos or their last year. More likely our roster has the most of those players on it.

      As far as the Hispanic thing, who cares. I don’t hear the players whining about it.

    • nyr2k2 says:

      Paul Lo Duca
      Doug Mientkiewicz
      Marlon Anderson
      Chris Woodward
      Brian Daubach
      Mike DiFelice
      Danny Graves
      Mike Matthews
      Xavier Nady
      Shawn Green
      Michael Tucker
      Kelly Stinett
      John Maine
      Darren Oliver
      Dave Williams
      Damion Easley
      David Newhan
      Jeff Conine
      Ben Johnson
      Chip Ambres
      Brian Lawrence
      Aaron Sele
      Chan Ho Park
      Joe Smith
      Billy Wagner
      Jon Adkins
      Brian Schneider
      Ryan Church
      Trot Nixon
      Brady Clark
      Brian Stokes
      Brandon Knight
      Scott Schoeneweis
      Matt Wise
      Eddie Kunz

      That’s pretty much a comprehensive list of players signed/drafted/acquired by Omar Minaya since 2005 that have played multiple games with the big team. Unless those guys are secretly Hispanic, get over the whole “Omar prefers Hispanic players” thing. It’s nonsense.

  26. The Slider says:

    Umm. Ehhh. I just checked the stats sheet on Reyes.

    In 61 games covering 60 innings, Reyes gave up 13 home runs in 2007. That makes Heilman’s stats look stingy.

  27. Pree says:

    I’m just curious how they intent to differentiate the 2 A. Reyes’…

  28. Big Lou says:

    great pick up, it’s about time we did something right, it’s been too long.

    • The Slider says:

      13 home runs in 60 innings?

      Ouch.

      • Big Lou says:

        you wanna keep giving away games the way we have? at least this guy has closed before, and not too long ago. Compare anyone else that’s available then talk.

  29. LL says:

    If we did have he All-Dominican team we wouldn’t be complaining about anything, trust me!!! Our division lead would be so huge. We would crush everyone!!! We could only be so lucky!

  30. anrst says:

    than you Rays

  31. rederick says:

    Regarding 40 man space – you could always move El Duque or Jason Vargas (remember him?) to the 60-day DL. Problem solved.

  32. My question is this – why did Al Reyes get a minor \league deal? Shouldn’t he be on the team now?

    • bkfitz says:

      He hasn’t pitched since August 5th. They want him to get some of the rust off.

      They also have to send someone down. This gives more time to decide on that.

  33. metjim says:

    I live in Tampa, we used to see Reyes out drinking….ALOT!! Dude has an alcohol problem! That’s why he hasn’t been playing, Maddon doesn’t like that in a player.