Reed Adopts Alter Ego On The Mound

GOODYEAR, Ariz.—When Clark Kent takes off his glasses, he becomes Superman. When lefthander Cody Reed puts his on, he becomes something of a superhero himself.

“It’s not fair,” muttered one Reds minor leaguer (who will remained unnamed) after his first live batting practice against Reed earlier this spring. “He’s a 6-foot-5, lefty, throwing gas, and with those glasses, you don’t know if he knows where it’s going.”

While “fear” may not quite be the word to use when describing what it’s like to face Reed, perhaps “intimidation” works.

The 22-year-old is a physical specimen, and he makes quite a strong first impression. Not to mention those black goggles.

That’s nothing new for Reed, who came to the Reds from the Royals along with fellow lefthanders John Lamb and Brandon Finnegan in the trade that sent Johnny Cueto to Kansas City last July.

The black plastic frames Reed wears on the mound now are the same frames his mother bought him when he was a 5-foot-9 high school freshman in Horn Lake, Miss., who couldn’t see his catcher’s signals.

He wouldn’t wear them that first season, but his mother made him as a sophomore.

“He was going to wear them, because if I was going to take him to the doctor and go through all that trouble, he’s by-golly going to wear them,” Kim Reed-Jones said.

Reed wore them his first game of his sophomore season and dominated. Since then, he’s had to have them.

“I’m really superstitious,” Reed said, “so (while) I’ve obviously had bad games with them, (it took only) one game of success to feel like I have to wear them all the time.

“I only put them on right before I start throwing. I stretch and stuff without them, but right when I start playing catch, I put them on.”

Reed, who finished 2015 at Double-A Pensacola, projects intensity on the mound, but off it he’s jovial and approachable.

“My intensity level is high,” said Reed, a Royals second-round pick in 2013 out of Northwest Mississippi CC. “I’m focused in my bullpens. That’s my job for the day, to work on my craft. Then I definitely relax.”

RED HOTS

• Shortstop Alex Blandino was hampered in late March by a hamstring injury sustained in a World Baseball Classic qualifier for Nicaragua.

• Outfielder Jesse Winker returned from a hip injury and was ready to start the season healthy at Triple-A Louisville.