PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Last June, in the two days between when the Colorado Rockies cut Jose Reyes and the Mets signed him, some people in baseball wondered if the once-electrifying shortstop had played his last major league game.
He was a speed player with aging legs, and his arrest on domestic-violence charges in 2015 had made him something of a pariah, with Commissioner Rob Manfred suspending him for 51 games even though the charges were ultimately dropped.