Alex Reyes To Have Tommy John Surgery

Cardinals GM John Mozeliak addresses Alex Reyes’ situation after his MRI yesterday. pic.twitter.com/reJR7RvIwK

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) February 15, 2017

Cardinals righthander Alex Reyes, the top pitching prospect in the game who’s ranked No. 4 overall in the Baseball America Top 100, will have surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament, the Cardinals organization said Wednesday.

General manager John Mozeliak addressed reporters from the Cardinals’ spring training home in Jupiter, Fla.,as teams began reporting to spring training. The GM called the situation, “Obviously very disappointing.”

“We had very high expectations for Alex, but I guess from a timing standpoint, now he has the year to do his rehab and get everything that he’s dealing with under control and hopefully he’ll be back better than ever.”

Mozeliak said Reyes likely will have the surgery in Jupiter but that the team is awaiting results of a second opinion from noted surgeon Dr. James Andrews, although Mozeliak acknowledged the results were likely to line up.

“It sucks,” Reyes told BA correspondent Derrick Goold about missing the season.

According to Goold, Reyes experienced a sharp discomfort in his right elbow Friday while throwing to prepare for spring training. An MRI exam showed that Reyes’ UCL had a complete tear. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, with Dr. George Paletta operating.

The Cardinals signed Reyes out of the Dominican Republic in 2012 to a $950,000 bonus, winning a bidding war against the Astros and Royals. He zoomed through the minors despite a 50-game marijuana suspension levied during the Arizona Fall League in 2015, and reached the majors last season to great fanfare at just 21.

The Cardinals see Reyes as a stronger, taller, broader version of Carlos Martinez, whom they just signed to a $51 million, five-year contract. Reyes averaged 97 mph on his fastball in the majors, routinely worked from 96-100 with it, and an opposing team clocked him in the minors at 102. He can maintain that power late into his starts and spot his fastball, one of the best in baseball, up in the zone. With it, he mixes a hard, hammer curve that also is an easy plus pitch, and increasingly in the majors his strikeouts came off the curve, or soon after a hitter saw it.

The Cardinals had hoped to plug him into their rotation in 2017 and for years to come, but now that’ll wait at least until 2018.