For the fourth straight year, we’re taking some time in that time between the end of the season and the winter meetings to discuss each player that made an appearance on the St. Louis roster this season. Whether they played almost every day or never actually got into a game, they get covered in this series. All stats are exclusively their time in St. Louis. Just think of this as them stopping by Mike Matheny‘s office for a quick evaluation before heading home for the winter.
Player: Mark Reynolds
Season stats: 140 games, 432 PA, 35 R, 21 2B, 2 3B, 13 HR, 48 RBI, 2 SB, 3 CS, 44 BB, 121 K, .230/.315/.398, 93 OPS+, -0.6 bWAR
Hero/Goat: Hero 5, Goat 5
Overall grade: C
Positives: Hit 35 points higher than he did in 2014 in basically the same number of at bats….tied for fourth with Jason Heyward in home runs on the team, but in significantly fewer times up….was hitting .253/.317/.411 when Matt Adams went down and he was pressed into regular service….hit nine of his home runs away from Busch….hit .243/.349/.412 in the second half, including a .288 average in August….hit .259 when he hit eighth….clobbered the first pitch for a 1.172 OPS.
Negatives: Had his streak of 20-homer seasons snapped….hit just .172 in April….September was rough on him as well, hitting .167 as he saw noticeably less time with Stephen Piscotty playing first….was still second on the team in strikeouts, even in his limited play….hit just .200 in the cleanup slot….hit .211 when there were two outs in an inning….with runners on and two outs, that dropped to .163….hit just .215 in high leverage situations, though did have three of his home runs then.
Overview: We saw a lot more of Reynolds this season than anyone expected when he was signed. The thought was that he’d be the power bat off the bench, spell Adams at first some, and generally be an upgrade over the non-starters that the club had had over the past few seasons. Instead, Adams goes down, which means Reynolds becomes pretty much the every day guy. Reynolds held his own better than I expected, but eventually the overexposure was too much. The club started Piscotty on the first base track and he did a fine job, eventually putting Reynolds back into the role for which he was signed. We knew we’d see the strikeouts, but we thought we’d see a few more homers. There were a few big ones that he hit, but all in all, it wasn’t exactly what the club was hoping for.
Outlook: Reynolds is a free agent and given the logjam that will be at first anyway, he’ll be playing somewhere else in 2016. He’s a professional guy that there never seemed to be any complaints about, though, so hopefully he catches on and has a successful season somewhere else (as long as it’s not in the NL Central).
