Hunt and Peck

Alex Reyes fought the wall and the wall won - A Hunt and Peck

...as walls tend to do against human fists.

By lil_scooter93 Apr 29, 2019, 1:00pm EDT

As Andrew St. John covered on Friday, Alex Reyes had a rough start Thursday evening. He had troubling finding the zone and was unable to complete three innings of work. The struggles came after several successful outings, but frustration with injury and trying to get back to the big leagues on top of the difficult outing seemed to have piled up on poor Alex. The disappointment bubbled up into rage, apparently, and that is how we arrived at Alex Reyes hurling his fist toward what was, in my imagination, a concrete wall of a minor-league clubhouse (my concrete guy can vouch to the structural integrity of the material). In doing so, Reyes fractured his pinky*. Per Jen Langosch of MLB.com:

“He made a rash decision that literally and figuratively hurt him,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “That’s disappointing. Life is about growth, right? And making adjustments and learning from things and dealing with things. He’s put two years of blood, sweat and, I’m sure, some tears to getting back, and his vision of getting back was him being in our clubhouse, pitching well. He’s frustrated he hasn’t been able to do it as quick as he would like. He made a decision that I’m sure he would choose to do over.”

The silver-lining is that Reyes had enough frame of mind to punch the wall with his left and non-throwing hand. While this means he won’t be able to see game action for awhile, he can still throw. He will not be cleared to catch, field, or hit for a least a month, though. It is certainly a set-back for Reyes and those hoping to see him in the Majors soon (which is almost everyone, basically).

*Fun Fact: breaking one’s pinky at the knuckle is often referred to as a Boxer’s Fracture. It is a common injury in fist-fighting or after smashing one’s fist into any solid object, such as a wall. Ironically, boxers do not often get this injury because they actually know how to punch and do not typically punch walls.

Alex Reyes fractures pinky, will miss 3 weeks | MLB.com