Padres' Reed lets talent, personality shine

Buddy Reed, after watching the ball he'd just launched die at the wall and land in the mitt of left fielder Yusniel Díaz on the Nationals Park warning track during the sixth inning of the Futures Game, let out a wail -- with a twinge of delight.
"I got no juice!" the microphone attached to the Padres prospect's jersey recorded him saying. "That ball went foul and then came back fair."

Mets prospect Peter Alonso carried out his old friend's glove from the dugout and greeted the always-excited Reed on the infield.
"Bro, that thing started down the line and then it just went," Reed said, his arm mimicking the baseball's slice back to fair territory. "Honestly, though, you know what that reminded me of?"
Alonso knew right away, but Reed still spoke the words.
"Your home run in Omaha," he said, referencing their time as teammates during the University of Florida's 2016 run to the College World Series.
Reed was the perfect personality for the MLB Network crew to highlight during the Futures Game, and the way he played in that showcase illustrated who he is on the field -- an effervescent and vibrant player who quickly draws in teammates and fans.
To play baseball, after all, is to consistently experience failure. The way Reed sees things, you might as well have fun doing it.
"If you get three hits in those 10 at-bats, you're hitting .300. ... Those seven other times you fail. It's a game of failure," he said. "We chose this game, and the biggest thing is staying positive and keeping that mentality knowing that for all those times you fail, you will succeed as well."

Having fun on the job

Michael Elliot Reed, aka Buddy, insists this is the way he's always played the game, and all sports, really. The 2016 second-round Draft pick thinks maybe he came out of his shell -- which by this point is a long-gone afterthought -- mostly during his time with the Gators, when he became comfortable around his teammates and gained a solid sense of who he was in the world.
"That's how I am off the field, so why not be that way on the field?" he said. "At the same time, it's baseball. We're playing a game. But it's our job. Don't you want to have fun with your job? Obviously, there's times to be serious. But we're playing a sport. Not too many people get to say they play a sport for a living. ... It's a blessing and it's a lot of fun. Why be down or be mad?"
Reed certainly doesn't have any reason to be upset this season. With Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore, he batted .324/.371/.549 with 12 home runs and 52 RBIs in 79 games. Entering Wednesday, the 6-foot-4 outfielder had five hits in 32 at-bats since being promoted to Double-A San Antonio for a July 11 debut.

An early-season tear earned the switch-hitter California League Player of the Month honors for April and made him a Cal League All-Star. He credited playing in Australia during the winter for fueling the turnaround from 2017, when he hit .235 with a .685 OPS with Class A Fort Wayne.
"That's kind of tough for him, going to not only a different country, but going halfway across the world to get better and develop as a player," said Alonso, who was roommates with Reed during their freshman year at Florida and was drafted 16 slots behind him in 2016. "I think it taught him a lesson: 'Hey, I need to figure a lot of stuff out in order to be successful.' He did that and that's really, really cool from the difference he's shown as a player and how much better he's gotten from last year to this year. It's really cool to see from a developmental standpoint because that shows he's grown a lot -- not only as a player but as a person, too."
His trip to the Futures Game came only four days after leveling up to San Antonio, splicing his transition to the club. But that experience was particularly memorable for Reed ("It was like I played in the Major Leagues for a day," he said), because Torii Hunter managed the USA club. Growing up, Reed took inspiration from the way the Twins, Angels and Tigers outfielder played the game.
Reed, who also sees role models in former Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams and current Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, had two key takeaways from his brief tutelage with Hunter.
"Feel that adrenaline," Hunter told him, "because there's no better feeling."
Reed said, "The other thing he told me was, 'Do you. Be you. Be yourself and bring guys over and help them stay positive. Help them be happy with this game.'"
In an era when debates rage over the professionalism of showing emotion on the field contrasted against old-school stoicism, Reed can be a polarizing figure. He recognizes this and does his best to rein in his emotions when necessary. But it's not always that simple.
"He's growing up as a person and as a player. I think that because he's so smart. He's not only baseball smart -- in general, he's very smart," Lake Elsinore manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "Whenever you want to present something new to him, you have to come up with very good information, a very good presentation, with videos, with stats, to convince him that that [adjustment] could work for him. So I think that he realized that and I think that approach worked with him. Being that open, very wild personality, it will help him. He needs to control it sometimes, because sometimes he gets way too emotional on the field and off the field."

"We chose this game, and the biggest thing is staying positive," Reed said. (Jerry Espinoza)
But Reed also sees himself as a potential leader in changing the narrative that showing emotion in baseball is a bad thing.
"I think it would be cool to kind of be an ambassador of some sort," he said. "I don't know what that would entail, but it would be cool to kind of get guys not to worry so much."
With evaluators present in Minor League ballparks nightly -- especially at this time of year, with the non-waiver Trade Deadline looming -- Reed believes players already have plenty to be concerned about without worrying about hiding their emotions. He posits that perhaps his style can encourage other players to shed the facade and express themselves on the field, which may result in a looseness that would lead to better individual and team results.
"If it's less of a worry," Reed said, "then guys can really show their true potential, and play well and better without having to worry about, 'What if I fail here? I'm going to keep failing.'"

Change of plans

Baseball wasn't the first plan for Reed. Growing up in the Bronx, New York, he chose Derek Jeter as his favorite baseball player, but hockey was his favorite sport. And he was exceptional at it, attending St. George's School, a prominent boarding school in Rhode Island, on a hockey scholarship. He was the team's leading scorer his senior year, and he hoped to either play in college or on the junior circuit and eventually hear his name called in the NHL Draft.
Reed wanted to attend a college where he could participate in both sports, but the collegiate baseball and hockey seasons have quite a bit of overlap. Aside from the logistics, the wear on Reed's body would have been untenable.
"Baseball was a sport I was starting to become good at," he said. "I didn't necessarily peak at all. I still had a lot of growing as a baseball player and I still do, which is pretty cool. I just felt like baseball, I could play for a long time, be successful, make money and support my family in the future."
The New York Rangers captured his heart as a youngster, though, and he can name a dozen former Blueshirts from the last two decades who qualify as his "favorite," such as Mark Messier and Mike Richter.
But Reed believes it was his hockey education, and the lightning action of the game, that helped aid his liberation on the diamond.
"In hockey, for some reason, when you're down, you're not necessarily out," Reed said. "Baseball you have to wait your turn. In hockey, yeah, you're waiting your turn, [but] it's so fast-paced that you're waiting a minute, not a couple innings. I did have a lot of personality playing hockey."

'You don't want to take his personality out of the game'

During college, Reed become a believer in the law of attraction -- how positive thinking can lead to positive results.
"The biggest thing for me is staying positive and staying happy as much as I can," he said. "Obviously, there's going to be times where you're not smiling or laughing or things like that. But in the back of your mind, you're knowing that everything will be OK and everything will turn out the way you want it to. These situations come up over and over and over again in the game of baseball. So you learn from those situations and then progress as a player."
Comments from teammates and coaches about occasions when he might have shown too much emotion don't bother him. Reed knows they have his best interest in mind. He takes their advice seriously and has applied it over the years.

The challenge for Rodriguez in Lake Elsinore was encouraging Reed to be his lively, bright self while also being aware of more traditional perceptions of his persona.
"You don't want to take his personality out of the game," the Storm manager said. "You want him to be himself. But at the same time, there's a borderline between being yourself and expressing yourself on the field and rubbing the wrong side of the other players or the other team. So he has to be careful with that. He has done a very good job, though there's still some work to do. You have to talk to him frequently -- before the game, after the game. Again, when you point something out to him, you have to explain, 'Why?' Not only, 'Don't do this,' you have to explain the consequences of his actions on the field. He's a very smart guy. You have to present [a convincing case]."
Reed's teammates look up to him and listen when he speaks, Rodriguez said. They naturally gravitate toward him.
"A New Yorker in the clubhouse, 6-3, 6-4, good athlete, well-spoken guy, very smart," Rodriguez said. "He's got a great personality. And on top of that, [he's] a very good player. You have all the elements to be a leader in the clubhouse."
And perhaps a leader for all of baseball.