Going into the 2025 season, left-handed starting prospect Gabriel Reyes was one of my picks for an unheralded prospect to break out. As it turned out, the stuff was willing, but the body and the command were not. Reyes spun his wheels at Single-A Lakeland despite good results, and now he’ll head into his age 22 season in real need of a big season that will carry him to the upper minors.
The Dominican born Reyes signed with the Tigers back in the 2020 international signing period. He immediately tore
the DSL up with five dominant short starts and then came stateside at 18 to pitch in the Complex League in 2021 and 2022. Injury trouble cost him the 2023 season, but he moved up to Single-A Lakeland in 2024 and showed off dominant stuff and good control for a young southpaw. He punched out 33.9 percent of the hitters he faced across 11 starts. His only blemish was such aggressive strike throwing that he occasionally left a few meatballs over the heart of the plate that got whacked.
So we were excited for his 2025 campaign. It just didn’t pan out well. First, Reyes reportedly came to camp in sub-optimal shape. The Tigers held him back for a few weeks before turning him loose again for the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Reyes had a good year on paper. He made 16 starts, got more ground balls and cut down the home runs, producing a stellar 2.40 ERA. His walks ticked up, but for a young pitcher he still shows a very good ratio of strikes thrown. And yet the Tigers never decided to promote him to West Michigan. The problem was more erratic pure stuff than he showed in 2024, and it showed as his strikeout rate dipped to 22.5 percent. They may also just have wanted to keep working with him at their main camp to make sure he was 100 percent ready for the move out into the farm system.
Reyes stands 6’1” and while he appears pretty strong and athletic for his size, he has a pretty reedy frame with an official weight of 170 pounds. He’s added some muscle in the past two years, and while he may get a little stronger he’s pretty close to maxed out physically.
The big calling card is a slider with a lot of sweep that is a plus pitch much of the time. He really turns the slider over and is quite adept at burying it on right-handed hitters’ back foot. At the Single-A level he can also pour it into the zone with impunity as long as he doesn’t leave too many above the belt, and he will get a lot of called strikes with it.
The fourseam fastball has a cruising speed of 92-93 mph and Reyes can run it up to 95 mph when he wants it. He’s a short-armer who doesn’t get a big stride, so the velocity plays down maybe a half a mile per hour, but the funk counterbalances that factor. When he’s up in the 94-95 mph band it’s at least an average fastball, which argues for an eventual move to the bullpen if he can’t ultimately build up to sustaining that velocity. He’s also developing a solid changeup but that pitch is still pretty hit or miss for him in terms of command.
Reyes has some funk, as he throws out of a low three-quarters arm slot, but his stuff doesn’t move the way hitters expect from that slot. Simply put, he has the arm slot of a guy that would usually pronate more and produce a lot of tailing action on the fastball and changeup. Instead it’s a true fourseamer that throws hitters off by defying the look of his release and sinking more than moving horizontally. He has started mixing in some actual sinkers with more tailing action as a change of pace to both right and left-handed hitters, but the fourseam is still accounting for about three-quarters of all fastballs thrown.
All told, Reyes looks like a potentially good lefty reliever. A lot would have to go right for him to reach the majors as a starter and I doubt he’ll get much more leash in that role. His size and delivery scream reliever. Presumably if there isn’t a big breakout this year the team will convert him and try to fastrack his move into the upper minors. He’ll be 23 next summer and it’s time to get a move on and conquer the High-A level this year. Expect him to start with the Whitecaps, and the Tigers will decide to adjust based on how he progresses by the end of the year.
Here’s a look at his six inning, 9 strikeout performance from back on August 17.
