jays’ reyes ready to take on turf,
Jose Reyes and Blue Jays brace for another year on artificial turf
It’s hard when you’re a speed guy and you’ve got sore legs
The Blue Jays hope to have grass growing in the Rogers Centre by opening day 2018. That may be too late for Jose Reyes. The 31-year-old shortstop has been a sprightly sight this spring, running the bases “like crazy,” as he likes to say, and showing a touch more range on defence. But he has been playing daily on real grass.
When the season starts at the Rogers Centre, so do his post-game ice baths.
“Like a football player,” he said. “They put ice in the [cold tub] and you get in there. It’s real cold, but after that you feel very good.”
Until you play another game or two on the hometown turf.
Reyes has a contract through 2017 that will pay him US$22-million a year. He can come back in 2018 if the Jays exercise their option to pay him another US$22-million, an eventuality that seems unlikely, given the team’s fabled payroll parameters, Reyes’s age and the wear and tear on his body.
He suffered a hamstring pull at the end of spring training last year – while playing on natural grass – and the injury nagged at him all season. He still played in 143 games, stole 30 bases and batted .287 with a .726 OPS and 3.1 WAR.
But playing with the Mets through 2011, he led the league in triples four times and stole more than 50 bases four times. He acknowledges that age and assorted injuries have slowed him down, and playing on turf doesn’t help, he says.
Especially last season, when he says he could never justify taking a day off, despite the soreness that dogged him from wire to wire. He never hurt quite enough to rest, he says, and he was proud that he stayed on the field all season.
“But it’s hard when you’re a speed guy and you have sore legs,” he said. “I feel like something was holding me back. I want to do some stuff, but at the same time, you feel like if you try to run like crazy, you know something’s going to blow up. Last year I felt that way the whole time, like if I run like crazy my hamstring was going to blow up.”
He stresses that he is not blaming the artificial turf for all of his pains. And plenty of position players take regular turns in the cold tub, he says.
“We need to understand that’s our home and we need to find a way to stay healthy and play there,” he said. “That’s not going to change. We just need to find a routine. Like, after every single game, you see everybody go to the ice — stuff like that, hot, cold and stuff. It’s not easy.” Running and extended periods of standing on a playing surface that lacks the resilience of natural turf can aggravate minor injuries that are endemic among baseball players over a long season. Back tightness is a common effect.
For Reyes, it is frustrating. He knows fans mutter about his declining range at short. He knows they expect more triples and stolen bases. He does too.
“It is hard, man, because you feel like you don’t play your game,” he said. “You feel like something’s missing. I’m the guy who likes to play my game, I like to play hard every single day, running like crazy. When I’m not able to do that, it’s not Jose Reyes. It’s somebody else playing.”
Reyes says he feels fully recovered from last year’s woes. Manager John Gibbons, however, has vowed to give him more days off to help keep his body fresh for the long haul.
Reyes understands the concept. He also expects to put up a stiff argument when he sees his name is not on the lineup card.
“Do I want more time off ? No,” he said. “You know, the season hasn’t started yet, so we’ll see how the year plays out. If one day my body feels a little bit tired and I feel like I need a day off, we’ll discuss that.
“I’ll never be that player, like, I feel a little bit tired, I go to the manager’s office and say I need a day off. I’m not that guy. If I feel like I can play, and I know if I play nothing is going to set me back two-three weeks — if I don’t feel that way, I’m going to be on the field helping my ball club.”
Gibbons counters that Reyes could help the club more with an occasional day off to revive his tired, sore muscles. In a year when the Jays face heavy pressure to win big, every day off for the leadoff hitter — Gibbons calls him “the catalyst” — is a delicate risk-reward calculation. Reyes is not the only one who might need more rest. On many nights this season, the Jays could field as many as six position players who have never before played their home games on artificial turf.
Josh Donaldson was an iron man in Oakland the past two seasons, playing 158 games in each year. Only 12 of those games were played on artificial turf.
Donaldson and the other new Jays might do just fine on turf, of course. There is no way to tell for certain. It can’t hurt that the club has just installed a new version of Astro-Turf, and like the previous rendition, it comes billed as more user-friendly.
But if visiting players complained about the old turf after playing in Toronto for three nights, as they often did, it figures that the new Jays will need to adjust their maintenance routines to keep their backs and legs supple.
Meanwhile, Reyes tweaked his conditioning program over the winter and, after an impressive spring, feels optimistic as he enters his 13th big-league season.
“I feel good,” he said. “In the offseason I had a good plan with my trainer. Now I can really feel the difference in how I move around the field. People are going to see a difference too.”
Such is the annual song of spring. Once the season starts, no matter how well they play, Reyes and his teammates will likely keep the ice tub working overtime.