Larry Brown Sports

Jose Reyes suffered an ankle injury sliding into second base during the top of the sixth inning of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 8-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night, and he is out at least a month, according to the team.

Reyes got an excellent jump on an 0-2 pitch with two outs and had the base stolen so easily it looked like he thought he could go into the bag standing up. He decided to slide at the last second, resulting in his left ankle jamming underneath his body because he did not have enough room to execute a proper slide.

Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos told reporters after the game that Reyes is out at least a month, and possibly three months as a worst-case scenario. The Toronto Star’s Brendan Kennedy says Anthopoulos has already had talks with other GMs about acquiring a potential interim replacement.

Reyes had a two-run single prior to leaving the game, and he had just stolen his fifth base of the season. The shortstop was scorching the ball to start the season and had been the catalyst at the top of the lineup Toronto hoped he would be when they acquired him from the Miami Marlins.

Toronto went all-in over the offseason in an effort to make a playoff push, and the team has started out a disappointing 4-6. The last thing they needed was one of their All-Stars getting hurt.

Eventually the whole “he said, she said” charade that is going on between Jose Reyes and Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria will fizzle out, but for now it would appear that Reyes is not content to just let it go. Earlier this month, Reyes claimed Loria encouraged him to buy a home in Miami just days before trading him to the Toronto Blue Jays. Loria fired back by saying that Reyes was lying, and now Reyes is saying that Loria is lying by calling him a liar.

Not only does Reyes insist Loria told him to buy a house days before the trade, but he says the owner also said it during the season as well. According to Reyes, his agent Peter Greenberg was a witness.

“He did it during the season, too: ‘Tell Jose to get a nice place in Miami, a good house,’” Reyes said. “He always told me that, me and Peter. I don’t know why he said he didn’t say that.” Reyes told the NY Post on Thursday: “You can ask Peter if I’m a liar. Two people are better than one.I don’t have to lie about that. He traded me, that’s fine with me. Just be real with me. Be honest. Don’t tell me to buy a house and get a nice place for my family and stuff when you [know] you’re going to trade me. Why [did] you do that?”

In addition, Reyes said that Loria’s claim that he informed Greenberg that Reyes was going to be traded to make sure he didn’t buy a house in Miami is false.

“No. Peter didn’tknow that [Loria] was going o trade me,” Reyes said. “That’s a lie. Nobody knew. So I don’t know where that came from. You guys can talk to Peter and ask Peter. That trade took everybody by surprise. I was on vacation. Peter wasn’t even the one to tell me I got traded.”

Regardless of who is telling the truth, Reyes needs to get over it and stop entertaining questions about it. He’s a professional athlete, and professional sports are a cut-throat business. It’s time to accept the fact that he is a Blue Jay and stop dwelling on the past.

H/T Hardball Talk
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Jose Reyes is not a big fan of Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, and if you believe the shortstop’s story about being traded you probably don’t blame him.  According to Reyes, Loria encouraged him to purchase a home in Miami just two days before he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Not surprisingly, Loria has a much different recollection of the dinner that Reyes was referring to when the conversation supposedly took place.

“What you were told is inaccurate,” Loria told reporters earlier this week, via Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post. “I never told him to buy a house. He was looking for a house. I will tell you that he came to an ALS dinner which I invited him to. He sat two people away from me, He came late. I asked him what he was doing in the next week. He told me he was going to Dubai. I said. ‘Has your wife been down to Miami? He said yes she has gone down. She is looking for a home. I didn’t say anything after that.”

In fact, Loria insists the exact opposite of what Reyes says happened actually happened. Rather than encouraging him to buy a home in Miami, the Marlins owner says he made sure Reyes was informed as soon as the decision to trade him was made so that he would not buy the house.

“Three or four days after that, (VP of baseball operations Larry Beinfest) came to me with the trade he wanted to do,” Loria explained. “I immediately called Jose’s agent out of respect for him and said Jose is going to be traded and I want you to call him before he reads about. He hasn’t bought a house yet has he? ‘No, he is contemplating.’ Just call him and let him know.”

Clearly, we have two very different accounts of the conversation that took place. Whichever you choose to believe is a matter of opinion, but Loria is hopeful people will believe his side. The last thing Marlins fans need are more reasons to dislike the team’s owner.

Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

When Jose Reyes makes his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays this season, he will be playing for his third team in as many years. Bouncing around from team-to-team can be challenging, but such is the life of a professional athlete. However, Reyes insists Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria tried to make life more difficult for him than it had to be.

In addition to assuring Reyes that the Marlins would never trade him, the shortstop says Loria was telling him to buy himself a nice house in Miami right up until two days before he was traded to Toronto.

“He always told me to get a nice house in Miami,” Reyes said, via Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. “I was at a dinner with him in New York, and he was still talking about the house.

“Two days later, I got traded.”

Reyes said he was so stunned by the news that he had been traded after the discussion he and Loria had at dinner that he thought someone was playing a prank on him. He quickly realized it was the real deal, and he said he has not spoken to Loria or any of Miami’s management since.

As for the Marlins themselves, Reyes said he feels badly for the city and its fans.

“I feel sorry for the fan base in Miami,” he said.

Why does that sound so familiar? Maybe because he said the exact same thing about the New York Mets last season. Luckily, Reyes said he did not purchase a home in Miami and is not planning to buy one in Toronto. With the way he has been shipped from place to place over the past several seasons, that’s probably a wise decision.

Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Jose Reyes made his return to Citi Field on Tuesday night for the time in a Marlins uniform, and the reaction was predictably mixed. Reyes was given no choice but to leave New York last winter, as they team didn’t even try to keep him. Educated fans understand that, whereas morons like the ones you see in the video above feel slighted by Reyes’ departure.

As you can see, a group of fans with Reyes’ name, number and a red X on their shirts taunted the Marlins shortstop during batting practice. They yelled “No loyalty!” and “All about the cash!” among other things, since Reyes was apparently supposed to do the right thing and take half the money Miami offered him to stay in New York. After the game, Reyes told reporters he was not surprised by the booing.

“It doesn’t surprise me because I play for another team now,” he said according to MLB.com. “Like I said, no hard feelings. I just tried to win this game, but unfortunately we lost it.”

It doesn’t surprise me, either. But that doesn’t make it any less classless.

Video via Daily Pitch
Photo credit: The Star-Ledger-US PRESSWIRE

The Mets may not have had any legitimate intention of re-signing Jose Reyes when the 2011 season came to a close, but it appears they want to remain friends with him. Reyes broke into the majors with the Mets in 2003 and gave them nine quality seasons, but they could not find the justification nor the finances to retain him. Reyes said he was upset the Mets never even made him a competitive offer, but the team is hoping to erase some of those memories by honoring their former shortstop with a video tribute.

According to the NY Daily News, the Mets have complied a highlight video from the nine years Reyes spent with the team that they will play prior to New York’s game against the Marlins at Citi Field on April 23.

Many are wondering how Reyes will be received when he makes his return to New York in a Marlins uniform. While there are always going to be a few fans that consider every player who leaves via free agency a back-stabber, I don’t see how Mets fans could do anything but cheer their former All-Star. It’s one thing for a player to skip town and join a rivalry over a few million bucks (yes you, Johnny Damon), but the Mets didn’t even attempt to keep Reyes. He didn’t chose another team over the Mets because he wasn’t given a choice. I’d be surprised if the majority of the fans don’t understand that.

As for the Mets front office, good luck to them in their attempt to make the fans feel warm and fuzzy and forget that they let their best player walk.

H/T Eye on Baseball
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Looks like Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes are getting along swimmingly for the Marlins. Ramirez shared the above picture on his Twitter account Thursday with the description “The rubios,” which means “the blonds.” Yup, the pair dyed their hair blond for the start of the upcoming season. It’s hard to tell if the dye jobs were part of a team-building exercise before the season begins, or if they were just trying to match the new neon colors of the Marlins uniforms. Whatever the case, it looks like all the video game playing has brought the two all-star infielders closer after the initially rough offseason for Ramirez following Reyes’ signing. Nothing says “I got your back” in the heat of battle quite like taking a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to the dome for a teammate.

Forearm bash to Big League Stew