Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak says Reyes (elbow) will not be bound by any special constraints upon his expected activation early next week, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports.
Reyes was originally slated for a May 1 return, but he was moved to the 60-day disabled list at the beginning of April to accommodate Greg Holland's addition to the 40-man roster. That essentially gave the hard-throwing right-hander an extra month to build his strength up, and it's shown. Reyes has compiled a whopping 44 strikeouts over 23 rehab innings, throwing over 90 pitches in each of his last two outings. The Cardinals plan on utilizing the same pitch-count parameters and high-inning stress assessments that would apply to any 23-year-old prospect when evaluating Reyes in his forthcoming starts. Moreover, the extra recovery time he's been afforded should now allow Reyes to pitch through the duration of the regular season and into the postseason, if applicable.