Jose Reyes Provides An Interesting Dynamic For The Colorado Rockies

After the Colorado Rockies shipped Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Jose Reyes and three prospects, everyone believed Reyes would get flipped immediately to a contender or another team besides Colorado. Wrong. In fact, he made his club debut today and fared pretty well. The question will arise whether or not Reyes will be moved prior to the July 31 deadline, or in the offseason for that matter, but we should soak it all in while we can, regarding Reyes’ game.

Once the Rockies come back to 20th and Blake on August 3 against the Seattle Mariners, there will be a new player featured at shortstop for the team wearing purple pinstripes. In my eyes, I’m hoping that player is Jose Reyes. Reyes was one of the game’s top shortstops until injures sidelined the native of Santiago, Dominican Republic.

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In 2006, Reyes absolutely raked for the New York Mets, landing himself a Silver Slugger Award. The switch-hitting shortstop hit .300/.354/.487 with 30 doubles, 17 triples, 12 home runs and drove in 57. Not to mention, Reyes scored 122 times that season. Reyes isn’t a power-hitter by any means, recording just as many triples as home runs in his career — 115 apiece.

Back to Reyes’ debut with the Colorado Rockies, it was a decent one batting out of the two-hole. In his first at-bat against Chicago Cubs left-hander Jon Lester, Reyes collected a base hit to the left side. Reyes tested his speed on the base paths shortly thereafter and was thrown out by David Ross, quickly ending the Rockies threat.

With that being said, Reyes provides an interesting dynamic the Rockies haven’t had in quite some time — speed. As you look up and down the Rockies lineup, Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez are maybe their two quickest guys, other than Drew Stubbs. Other than that, the players they have featured are average to below-average regarding speed. Having Reyes potentially in the lineup creates more options.

No, I’m not saying Reyes will replace Troy Tulowitzki’s production, but it’s an interesting time to be a Rockies fan and watch the way this team is moving forward. Granted, I don’t believe Reyes will be in the Mile High City for long.

In 69 games played with the Toronto Blue Jays, Reyes hit .285/.322/.385 with 17 doubles, 4 home runs and 34 RBI’s. What was missing, you ask? Triples. Over the past three seasons (305 games played), Reyes has logged on four triples. That may have a thing to do with the Rogers Centre, but you can’t help but wonder how many doubles and triples Jose Reyes would’ve logged as a member of the Rockies.

Reyes has been pretty efficient on the base paths over the last two seasons as well. In 212 games played, Reyes swiped 46 out of 50 bags — 92 percent. One thing Colorado fails to do is swipe the extra base, although their base running is pretty porous anyway. Colorado is in the middle of the pack in the Majors, collecting 51 stolen bases. However, they’ve been caught stealing 29 times — a stolen base percentage rate of 63.8%.

Who knows whether Jose Reyes will remain with the Colorado Rockies after the July 31 trading deadline, but you have to be excited to potentially see what he could do at Coors Field.