Before the 2018 season, the Tigers selected the quiet, Venezuelan-born Reyes in the Rule 5 draft from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Despite never having played above Double-A, he managed to stay on the squad all year, appearing in 100 games.
Gardenhire took advantage of a difficult circumstance by keeping Reyes for the entire 2018 season. However, having only 212 at-bats at that point in his career may have hampered his progress.
Reyes is a switch-hitter with no obvious weak side (.301 left-handed,.302 right-handed), however the right side has more power. Pitchers continue to try to beat him with fastballs after being overwhelmed so often last season.
Fastballs are seen 62.6 percent of the time, and he is hitting.359 against them. In addition, he’s hitting.279 versus off-speed pitches.
He is hitting .195 against breaking balls. He does, however, make contact, as Gardenhire predicted. His swing-and-miss percentage is just 22%, which is among the team’s best.
“He still needs to work on his striking zone,” Gardenhire added. “He takes a lot of pitches. It’s worked out well for him.
Better plate awareness will be the next step for Reyes offensively, as he learns to lay off pitches on the fringes of the strike zone rather than fighting them off.
“He does hit the ball the other way a lot,” Gardenhire explained. “He has a lot of bloops and such.” He’s just good at getting the bat to the ball and putting it in play. He’s quite good at it.”
Reyes’ pursuit rate is now at 39.5 percent, but he makes contact on pitches beyond the strike zone 68 percent of the time.
Who Are Victor Reyes Parents?
There is no information about who Reyes’s parents are.