The Phillies made some progress in their offseason crusade to revamp their bullpen today by signing left-hander Dennys Reyes to a one year contract worth $1.1 million, with a mutual option for 2012 worth $1.35 million, according to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes.
Reyes, 33, spent the 2010 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he appeared in 59 games as a left-handed specialist, and threw a total of 38 innings. Over that span of time, Reyes was 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA.
Reyes had a streaky campaign with the Cardinals last year. After posting an ERA of 0.71 over the first three months of the season, he struggled in June, posting an ERA of 12.46 in 4.1 innings.
After bringing his ERA back down to 3.24 in July, Reyes saw limited action in the final months of the season, posting an ERA of 6.08.
What is sure to interest the Phillies the most about Reyes is his continued success against left-handed hitters. In 2010 alone, Reyes threw 19 innings combined versus left-handed hitters, striking out 20, walking 11 and allowing a total of six earned runs. He posted a K/9 percentage of 9.21 against left-handed hitters, but also walked 5.21 lefties per nine.
His streaky control is sure to be his biggest concern entering the 2011 season, but the Phillies have traversed this path before—he is very similar, statistically, to former Philly J.C. Romero.
In total in 2010, Reyes walked 4.17 batters per nine. While that is an improvement over Romero's 7.12 BB/9 percentage, the Phillies would like to see Reyes bring his walks down so that he could be relied on in late innings against tough left handed hitters.
Nicknamed "The Big Sweat" for obvious reasons, Reyes brings a standard repertoire of pitches to the table. He throws a straight, four-seam fastball that averages 90mph and loves to throw a tailing slider away from left-handed hitters off of that.
Over the course of his career, he has also been known to mix in a two-seam, moving a fastball, changeup and average curveball.
We first learned of the Phillies interest in Reyes around noon yesterday, when reports from the Winter Meetings in Florida indicated the Phillies had met with his agent, and showed strong interest in the left-hander, along with the Florida Marlins.
The Phillies emerged as the favorite to sign Reyes last night, and Ruben Amaro Jr. and Co. hammered out the contract details this afternoon.
Even with Reyes and fellow left handed reliever Antonio Bastado aboard, the Phillies will continue looking at different ways of upgrading their bullpen.
They have been in touch with the agent of free-agent right-hander Chad Durbin, and made an offer to left-hander George Sherrill before he signed with the Atlanta Braves this afternoon.
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