Cardinals' Reyes May Be Out; Cubs Maddon Constructs Season Message

By ESPN

The Alex Reyes news hits the St. Louis Cardinals right where they live.

Something wasn't right from the minute the team's hulking, baby-faced pitcher set foot in the clubhouse Tuesday morning. He politely declined an interview request, saying he had somewhere to be. That somewhere turned out to be an appointment with a doctor that led to an MRI tube that led to the grim realization that one of the brightest young talents in the game could be dimmed for at least a year.

Reyes has had a sore elbow for a few days, and word is the tear in his ulnar collateral ligament is severe enough that doctors will recommend Tommy John replacement surgery. Recovery from that operation figures to keep Reyes out of action until 2018.

Nowadays, the prognosis for injuries like this is pretty encouraging long-term. Reyes is only 22 years old. He'd be nuts to prolong what could prove to be the inevitable if doctors think it truly is inevitable. He might as well get it addressed now rather than wait until the prime of his career, his best earning years, when the team will need him the most. He and the Cardinals have known since the spring of 2013 that things could be heading this way. The first time doctors found a partial tear -- also known as a strain -- they were able to keep him on the field with an injection of platelet-rich plasma. Now, it looks as if they'll have to cut open his elbow and replace the ligament.

It stinks for Reyes and the Cardinals because he was one of their most dynamic players at a time when the team has a gap in high-end talent at the top of its minor league pipeline. The Cardinals are never going to say they're rebuilding, but this is pretty close to what that looks like around here. They failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2010 last season, and most of the projections haven't liked what they expect to see from the Cardinals in 2017. Losing the best prospect in the organization isn't going to make those prognostications any sunnier or make that 17 ½-game gap with the Chicago Cubs from last season get any smaller.

The only raw material the Cardinals have ever consistently used for their construction projects is the stuff Reyes is made of: homegrown talent. He's not just a guy who throws 100 mph; he's a guy who throws 100 mph with maturity and feistiness and adds a good aura about him in the clubhouse.

Short of something happening to Carlos Martinez, Tuesday's news was about as lousy for a Cardinals fan on day one of spring workouts as you could imagine. Reyes was one important adjustment -- pitch efficiency -- from being one of the team's most bankable commodities in preventing runs, the area where the team broke down in 2016. He struck out 52 batters in 46 major league innings last season. He also walked 23. He wasn't a finished product.

Yet Reyes was a big part of any best-case scenarios a Cardinals fan could build for this season. Teamed with Martinez, he could have given the team a high-octane young pitching duo that had the potential to make up for the power the team lost when it let Matt Holliday and Brandon Moss go. If the Cardinals wanted to limit his innings, he could have been a shutdown reliever, which he was for much of his month-and-a-half in the big leagues in 2016.

Now, Cardinals fans might have to confine those fantasies to two years down the road and, even with advances in medicine and physical therapy, major surgery still involves an element of mystery.

The Cardinals will now turn their hopes for the back of the rotation to Michael Wacha or, as general manager John Mozeliak was quick to point out, perhaps Luke Weaver, the team's second-best pitching prospect, the one whose high ranking didn't prove as predictive in 2016 as Reyes' did. Facts are facts. Weaver had a 5.70 ERA and 1.596 WHIP in 36⅓ innings. The 25-year-old Wacha had a 5.09 ERA and 1.478 WHIP in 138 innings and has had his shoulder give out on him late in each of his past two seasons.

The team has better starting pitching depth than it did a year ago, but that's not to say it has anyone with Reyes' ability -- or even close -- ready to step in. Few teams do, which is why anybody who roots for those teams dreads news like what the Cardinals received Tuesday. Reyes didn't even get a chance to put on his uniform before learning he might not have to bother with one this season.

Cubs' Joe Maddon Constructs Message

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon took the entire offseason -- short though it was -- to construct his message for 2017. The defending world champions return a strong group of young players, but Maddon wouldn’t be Maddon without some key words and phrases to lean on.

“I want to focus on the word ‘uncomfortable,’” Maddon said Tuesday on Day 1 of spring training. “I want to focus on the word ‘authenticity’ and ‘don’t forget the heartbeat.’

“If you become a comfortable person, it subtracts growth from the equation. If you remain somewhat uncomfortable, you’ll continue to grow.

“If you are in fact an authentic person, you are able to repeat what you’ve done in the past naturally. It’s just who you are. There is nothing contrived with someone that’s authentic.”

"Don’t forget the heartbeat" stems from the now-famous meeting Cubs players held during a rain delay in the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series. The Cubs feel that moment led them to victory when play resumed. Maddon’s point is that the human element is still vital in baseball.

“We came back and regrouped because our guys got together in a room void of any kind of statistical, video, analytical information,” Maddon said. “They went in there as human beings and came out unified. I don’t want us to forget the heartbeat -- ever. It’s a daily effort to balance. To balance the old-school and new-school methods and make it into the school of what’s happening now.”

Maddon’s sayings have been a boon for Chicago-area charities, as he has printed some of his slogans on T-shirts and sold them the past couple seasons. Last season's "Try Not To Suck" was a popular item, and the manager promises a new crop, beginning with "That’s Cub." It’s a saying that originated in the lower level of the minors, even before Maddon’s arrival, when the team’s current stars were just beginning their careers.

“The players were starting to realize how good they were,” team president Theo Epstein said. “Great morale was starting to take hold in the minor league system, and when a player would make a great play or back up a base or do something really positive for a teammate, the other players would say, ‘That’s Cub right there.’ It stood out because for a century it had a different connotation. It really took hold in the minor leagues.”

The lone concern around the team right now is the short offseason. The front office took note that the Cubs played late into October in 2015, then won Game 7 of the World Series in November the following year. The World Baseball Classic has moved up spring training by about a week this year, so the team is focused on easing into spring training, particularly for its pitchers.

"Rest is the key word," Maddon said. "That’s been a big topic of our conversation."

The Cubs skipper is a master of psychological manipulation to get the most out of his players, and this spring will be no different. Although the Cubs have won the World Series, he has no plan to change his ways, promising new slogans and fun, off-the-field activities. One is coming Friday, the first day of full-squad workouts, though Maddon wouldn’t say what it is. Right now he’s focusing on a new journey -- and new catchphrases -- with a slightly different team after the Cubs said goodbye to veterans including Aroldis Chapman and Travis Wood.

“You’re never going to do it in the same manner,” Maddon said. “It’s always going to be different, but the approach is the same.”