Matt Reynolds (infielder)

Matthew William Reynolds (born December 3, 1990) is an American professional baseball infielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).

College career

Reynolds bats at the 2012 CWS

Reynolds attended Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He played both baseball and basketball and received interest from Iowa State, Furman and Butler to play college basketball.^[1][2] He decided, however, to play college baseball for the Arkansas Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas. He played for Arkansas as a third baseman from 2010 to 2012 and hit .275/.382/.413 with 11 home runs and 72 runs batted in over 150 career games.

Professional career

Reynolds was drafted by the New York Mets in the second round of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.^[3] The Mets moved Reynolds to shortstop after he signed.^[4] He made his professional debut that season for the Savannah Sand Gnats, hitting .259 with 3 home runs in 42 games. In 2013, Reynolds played in 117 games for the St. Lucie Mets and one game for the Double-A Binghamton Mets. He hit a disappointing .225 with five home runs. Reynolds started the 2014 season back with Binghamton and was promoted to the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s after hitting .355 in 58 games.^[5][6] With the 51s, he finished 2015 with a batting average of .267, 65 RBIs, and 6 home runs in 115 games.

He spent the 2015 regular season in Triple-A before being called up to the Mets during the 2015 NLDS as a replacement for the injured Rubén Tejada.^[7] In doing so, he became the first player in modern baseball history to be added to a postseason roster in the middle of a series without previous major-league experience. He also became the third player in modern baseball history to be included on a postseason roster without previous major-league experience, after Chet Trail of the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series (not on the active roster) and Mark Kiger of the Oakland Athletics in the 2006 American League Championship Series.^[8][9] He was dropped from the roster for the World Series and did not appear in any games in the playoffs and was replaced by Juan Uribe.^[10] The fourth player to be added to a postseason roster without any majors experience, Raúl A. Mondesí, was added to the Kansas City Royals' World Series roster the same day Reynolds was removed.

The Mets promoted Reynolds to the major leagues on May 17, 2016 against the Washington Nationals.^[11] He made his major league debut at third base for the Mets that night after David Wright was scratched from the starting lineup. He went 0-3 with one strikeout. On May 25, Reynolds picked up his first major league hit, a single, leading off the fifth inning against Nationals' pitcher Tanner Roark. He would score a run later in the inning to give the Mets a 2-0 lead which would eventually be the final score.^[12] Reynolds was sent down to the 51s to make room for Wilmer Flores who came off the disabled list. ^[13] Reynolds appeared in eight games during his first big league stint. He had a .100 batting average, one hit, one run scored, three strikeouts and one walk.

Reynolds was recalled again on June 3 after David Wright was placed on the disabled list.^[14] In a June 22 game at Citi Field against the Royals, Reynolds started and appeared in the outfield for the first time in his professional career and also hit his first Major League home run, a go-ahead homer off of reliever Joakim Soria.^[15]

Reynolds taking his first MLB at-bat

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)