DUNEDIN, Fla. — Jose Reyes pulls his phone out of his sweatpants and scrolls through a cavalcade of messages, arriving on a lengthy series of texts he’s been exchanging with the man he’ll be spending a great deal of time standing next to this season—Josh Donaldson. Shortly after the former Oakland Athletics third baseman was traded to Toronto he sent Reyes a direct message on Twitter to introduce himself. Reyes responded with his phone number, and the two have been furiously texting each other ever since.
The messages are almost unbelievably innocuous and benign; months of notes about how excited they are to play together and how they can’t wait for spring training to start.
It can be easy to be cynical, and assume that professional athletes don’t still get giddy and excited at the prospect of playing ball like little league teammates might. But that’s not the case for Reyes and Donaldson, two pro ballplayers who really do talk like kids when it comes to the game.
And then there’s the emojis. So many emojis.
“Oh yeah, we’ve been talking a lot. We’d say hello when we play each other, but we never talked or anything until now,” Reyes says. “Now he messages me when he buys a new car or things like that. Like, I don’t know him—but I know him. You know what I mean?”
Sure we do. And we also know what it felt like when the left side of the Blue Jays infield took the inevitable next step in their electronic friendship Tuesday morning—meeting IRL. When Reyes arrived in Dunedin a little before 10 am, wearing a leopard print hat and loud neon shoes, Donaldson was one of the first Blue Jays to greet him, giving Reyes a big hug like they’d known each other for years.
“Donaldson, he had an unbelievable year last season. Not to take anything away from Brett [Lawrie]. When Brett was healthy and on the field, he was a very good player,” Reyes says. “But Donaldson, you can see what he’s capable of doing. And he’s playing every day. That kind of mentality that he has, that’s something that we need.”
It’s not even March and already much has been said about the dangerous bats in the heart of the Blue Jays order, where right-handed sluggers Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Donaldson will preside. It’s a fearsome bunch—MVP candidates, all of them. But Reyes knows he’ll also help determine the success of the lineup as its leadoff hitter.
“I’m going have to get my legs ready, because I’m going to be scoring a lot of runs this year,” Reyes says. “The middle of the lineup is going to be sick. Like, unbelievable. If all those guys stay healthy, we’re going to do a lot of damage. My job this year is just to stay healthy and get on base for those guys.”
Getting those legs ready was Reyes’ focus over the off-season, when he trained diligently with resistance bands strapped to his legs to help strengthen the muscles he hopes will carry him through the year.
Last season he sprained his hamstring late in spring training—an MRI revealed inflammation but nothing worse—and initially tried to play through it. But after running to first base in the very first inning of the season he thought better of it, coming out of the game and heading straight to the disabled list.
He came back a couple weeks later feeling better, but not as good as he would’ve liked. The hamstring would end up bothering him all year, and as the season wore on he developed a right shoulder injury that severely impacted his ability to throw to first base. He felt pain every time he followed through, which he says is the main reason he committed a career-high 11 throwing errors.
Reyes took a cortisone shot for his shoulder over the all-star break and came back feeling rejuvenated. He hit .330/.364/.400 in his first 100 at-bats out of the break and says that three-week period was the only time all season that he felt close to healthy.
Then, on August 10, the Blue Jays played a 19-inning game against the Tigers, a grueling marathon that Reyes played every minute of, making 10 plate appearances and reaching base four times. From that point on, Reyes had to play with his left hamstring tightly wrapped and dealt with swelling in his left knee. He would miss just two games from there on out and was still relatively effective, batting .288/.308/.373 over the rest of the season and converting all eight of his stolen base attempts. But he didn’t feel like himself.
“I played over 140 games last year. I feel good about that. But after that 19-inning game, I wasn’t the same,” Reyes says. “I don’t want to make an excuse. You’re never going to play 100 percent. You’re always going to have something going on with your body. But you have to know how to manage it.”
Coming into camp this year Reyes says he feels healthy. Last season he ran sparingly, opting not to attempt stolen bases in the name of preserving his hamstring. He still finished the year with 30 steals, tops on the team. But he thinks he’s capable of much more.
“As long as I feel good and 100 percent, which I do, I’m going to run,” Reyes says. “If I get on base I’m going to try to steal. This is what I do. All my life I’ve been running and stealing bases. “
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has suggested that Reyes may need to begin taking more days off as his career advances in order to stay healthy, or at least play as the designated hitter from time to time to get off his feet. General manager Alex Anthopoulos echoed those comments this week, saying he’d ideally like to see Reyes take a rest during a day game following a night game on the Rogers Centre turf. Gibbons broached the subject of more rest with his shortstop a few times last season and found Reyes less than receptive to the idea. Now, a year later, Reyes remains bullish about his ability to play every day.
“I don’t know—we’ll see. DH for me is…” Reyes begins, before trailing off and shaking his head dismissively. “I feel like if I’m able to play then I want to be on the field. If I feel good, what do I need to take a day off for? I know a lot of people say taking a day off is good for your body, especially when you’re playing on the turf. But I want to be out there helping my ball club. That’s just how I am.”
The playing surface at Rogers Centre complicates things. While the team installed brand new turf this off-season it remains an artificial surface, which will undoubtedly take its toll on the legs and backs of Blue Jays fielders.
“You have to be careful. You can’t go too crazy on the turf,” Reyes says. “Sometimes you go home after a game and you feel good, and then the next day you wake up and you’re sore, and you’re like, ‘man, where did that come from?’ It’s that turf. It’s not easy to play on it.”
Reyes took extended time to rest his turf-weary legs at the beginning of the off-season, going back to his hometown of Palmar Arriba in the Dominican Republic for three weeks to visit family and check in on the things he’s given back to his former life, like the old NYPD fire truck he had shipped over last year and the baseball field he grew up playing on and paid to renovate (he wants to donate an ambulance next).
Years ago Reyes founded a baseball league in Palmar Arriba that’s given more than 150 kids a place to play the game. Now his cousin has started another league with 70 more children, drawing from neighbouring towns where they don’t have baseball diamonds.
“The people in Palmar Arriba, they don’t have too much money,” Reyes says. “But at least they have a field. These other towns around Palmar Arriba, they have even less money and no field. It’s tough. I try to do what I can.
Reyes will keep trying to do what he can, both at home and on the diamond for the Blue Jays. He knows if he’s healthy he can be the catalyst for an awful lot of offence in Toronto’s dangerous lineup. He cares about his own production, sure. He wants to hit doubles and triples; wants to steal bases; wants to make great plays at shortstop. But he’s in his thirties now and he has the perspective to realize what his most important task will be this season.
“I just want to stay healthy and stay on the field,” Reyes says. “That’s the key. If I do that, then I know we’re going to have a good year.”
