The Toronto Blue Jays were without star shortstop and leadoff man Jose Reyes for a majority of last year because of a broken ankle. It was a blow neither the Blue Jays nor Reyes truly recovered from.
Last month Reyes announced that he was ready to start over and bring a winning season to the Blue Jays.
"Last year was a tough year, not just for me but for the whole team," said Reyes. "This year, I feel like I'm 100 percent and back to normal. I can't wait to get out on the field and do what I do best to help this ball club to get to where we need to go."
When faced with the facts the he stole as many bases last year as he did in one week in 2007, Reyes has to laugh.
"That wasn't me. That was just someone else playing," Reyes said a week ago Friday. This year, he promises, "they'll see the real Jose Reyes."
The last of the "real" Jose Reyes the Blue Jays saw was on April 12th, when he changed the fate of not only his season, but his team's season as well. At the time he was hitting .395/.465/.526, with five steals in five tries in just 10 games, and looked like he was heading for another stellar year.
Reyes went in for a steal, and couldn't decide if he wanted to go in head-first or feet-first. He made the wrong decision when he went in feet-first, got his left ankle tangled underneath him, and was left with a severely sprained ankle.
"When it happened, the first thing in my mind was that I was going to miss the whole year," Reyes said. "When the trainer (asked) me, 'Can you move your ankle?' I said, 'I can't even FEEL my ankle.' I wasn't crying. But a tear was coming down my eyes. I said, oh man, I come to a new team, with high expectations, and now, 10th game of the season, I went down for who knows how long? Oh man. That was tough."
Reyes returned to the lineup within three months, a miraculous return that was too quick.
"It's tough because you come here with the expectation of spring training but in baseball you never know what is going to happen," Reyes said. "No matter what people say, you have to believe as a player. After that, you have to put it in the past. This is a new year and hopefully everybody can stay on the field... Bautista, me, Melky, and all the other guys. We need to win a lot of games for this ball club."
Reyes' ankle finally got the rest it needed to heal 100 percent during the offseason. He went home and rested for a month and a half and spent the winter doing stretching and strengthening exercises. He comes back at his fullest potential.
"I had to do some new exercises for my ankle to get it stronger but that was nothing," he said.
As for his ankle- will it ever be the same? "It's never going to get normal," Reyes said. "You're always going to feel something. But that's something I just have to deal with."
Reyes will have to deal. He's in his third year of a $106 million contract he thought was going to be in sunny Miami. The first two years of that contract were less than satisfactory, and he has high hopes for this season.
References: ESPN and Toronto Sun.
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