Matheny catches prospect Alex Reyes in the bullpen. #stlcards #cardinals pic.twitter.com/SUEmzMR85i

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) February 22, 2015

The Cardinals invited their No. 4 prospect, 20-year-old pitcher Alex Reyes, to throw in front of the Major League coaching staff on Sunday despite Reyes not being invited to the big-league camp this spring. But when Reyes arrived to throw near the end of team workouts, the coaching staff noticed that all the catchers were busy on another field. So Cardinals skipper and 4-time Gold Glove winner Mike Matheny grabbed a catcher’s mask and got in his old position to receive the youngster. Jenifer Langosch of Cardinals.com has more:

“The best seat in the house is up close and personal behind the plate,” Matheny said after the session. “With [Reyes], I also want to encourage him. Just let him know that we’re watching, and give him a little motivation, too. Me back there, maybe it added a little bit? I don’t know. He certainly didn’t show it, as he was absolutely terrific.”

Here’s a video of Matheny catching Reyes’ throwing session from Cardinals.com:

In his second year in the Cardinals system last season at Class A Peoria, Reyes struck out 137 batters over 109 innings while posting a 3.36 ERA in 21 starts. Although not invited to big league camp, Reyes is among the organization’s young players invited to the Spring Training Early program, which begins in a few days.

More from Langosch’s article:

“We want to win the games, don’t get me wrong, but it was a great test for this kid and he stood right back up there and never flinched, and made better pitches after the [first] homer,” Matheny said. “All in all, I know he has the stuff. It just kicked in there a couple of the things he needs to work on.”

Read Langosch’s full article on Cardinals.com.

 

Twitter post and image from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Feature image used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison. No changes made. Creative Commons License.