Should The Brewers Take A Flier On Former Cardinals Reliever Alex Reyes?

In their first off-season under Matt Arnold, the Milwaukee Brewers have been bringing in a lot of new faces. An area that has received a lot of attention so far has been the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen. They have added pitchers both internally as well as externally.

New additions to the bullpen include Cam Robinson, Abner Uribe, Tyson Miller, Javy Guerra, and Elvis Peguero. Janson Junk is expected to compete for a starting rotation spot. Adam Seminaris was brought in during the Hunter Renfroe trade, but is not on the 40-man roster.

Departing out of the bullpen from last years team is Taylor Rogers, Brad Boxberger, Trevor Rosenthal, Trevor Gott, Jandel Gustave, Luis Perdomo, and Brent Suter. Rosenthal ended up not pitching for the Brewers due to injury. Boxberger had his option declined by the Brewers and Rogers had his contract expire and entered free agency. Gott, Gustave, and Perdomo were all non-tendered and Suter was claimed off waivers by Colorado.

This currently sets Devin Williams up to be the primary closer for the Brewers in 2023. The biggest question is which player(s) will be the bridge to the ninth inning. With a lot of young pitchers on the staff, the Crew may target a veteran to fill that role.

One free agent player the Brewers may target in order to bolster their bullpen is a former closer from the St. Louis Cardinals. That player is Alex Reyes.

Reyes is just 28 years old, but his career has been marred by injuries. He's undergone three separate shoulder surgeries since he debuted in the big leagues in 2016. His 2022 season was lost due to rehabbing from surgery and he was ultimately non-tendered this off-season.

When healthy, Reyes has electric stuff. He has a career 11.0 K:9 ratio and was an All-Star in 2021 when he saved 29 games for the Cardinals. His career ERA is an impressive 2.86. Despite multiple surgeries, his fastball velocity has historically returned and it averaged out at 97 MPH in 2021.

If Reyes can stay healthy, he has the ceiling of being an All-Star caliber reliever. He hasn't had a bad season due to performance, so his floor essentially rests on his health. MLB trade rumors had his 2023 projected salary at $2.85MM, so the Brewers could look to buy low on him and hope to reap all the rewards.

Adding a veteran bullpen arm would help round out the current group of players that the Brewers have. The Brewers have not yet been publicly linked to Alex Reyes, but that doesn't mean that he isn't on Matt Arnold's radar.