JUPITER, Fla. • This summer, he’ll fire his first major-league pitch, inevitably a fastball that’ll surely singe the commissioner’s signature.
But for now, he’s over here, on a back field at the Cardinals’ complex, fielding a bunted baseball that reads: “OFFICIAL BALL – FLORIDA STATE LEAGUE,” with the stamped signature of one Chuck Murphy, the league’s president.
Alex Reyes is far from the big league camp but not, I think, that far from the big leagues. He’s participating in the Cardinals’ “Spring Training Early Program” (STEP) camp, but I sense, be it from conversations, stat analysis or my own inclination, that the righthanded pitcher will crack the club’s big-league roster this summer.