Tampa Bay Rays signee Matt Reida talks to Wildcat Blue Nation

Former Kentucky Wildcats shortstop Matt Reida, who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Tampa Bay Rays, spoke to Wildcat Blue Nation on June 18th.

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Daniel Solzman: Matt, thanks for joining Wildcat Blue Nation today. How are things treating you as you in Florida?

Matt Reida: Everything’s great. Just got down here yesterday. Got my physical done today, my contract signed. Got all that work that goes into it before I can start playing tomorrow out on the field first thing in the morning.

Daniel Solzman: When did you find out that the Tampa Bay Rays had an interest in signing you?

Matt Reida: actually, I got a call—today is the 18th—on Monday morning. I was in St. Louis playing for the River City Rascals, an independent team in the Frontier League. I got a call Monday morning that pretty much said “Do you want to come play? We have a spot for you in the GCL.” I said “Absolutely.” They right away, put me on a flight to get down here. It was all really quick.

Daniel Solzman: Have you reached out to Luke Maile?

Matt Reida: Yeah. Luke was actually my roommate at UK. He’s in AA right now in Montgomery with the Biscuits. We talked quite a bit over the last two days. He had some good advice for me, just some housekeeping stuff. How to go about things in the Rays organization so Luke’s been a great mentor to me for the last few years, actually.

Daniel Solzman: Has Dick Vitale tweeted you to welcome you to the Rays organization yet?

Matt Reida: (Laughs) He has not. Dickie V is a big Rays fan so I’ll see him around some time.

Daniel Solzman: He’s by the visitor’s dugout if I recall correctly from when I went to the game last year.

Matt Reida: Yeah.

Daniel Solzman: In what ways has Coach Gary Henderson prepared you for the next level?

Matt Reida: Coach Henderson did a really good job of helping guys to mature. You always see it especially once you get older at UK. You can see the freshmen in just a few months how much they grow up, how much they mature. It’s no different for me. It’s just a maturation process throughout my four years. He’s helped me a lot on the mental game, the mental side of baseball, which coming out of high school, you don’t really have to learn yet until you get to college and start failing and have to deal with failure. He was really good at helping me, give me stuff to read, just learning about the mental side of baseball.

Daniel Solzman: Of your years wearing the Kentucky uniform, what is the one thing that you are most proud of?

Matt Reida: The one thing I’m most proud of? Shoot. I think over the past four years that 2012 was my favorite year because 2011 was such a down year. It was kind of—you have that feeling around the program that we’re not really sure what was happening here. Are we supposed to win? Are we supposed to be good? And then 2012, just a group of guys that all bought into the program, all bought into Coach Henderson, Coach Green, Coach Bohannon. Just the mentality of how they went around their business made me proud to be a part of the program. In general, I think it really the program onto the next level. It’s like, okay, we’re supposed to win here, we’ve really good players, we’ve got some really good coaches so now let’s start winning games. That was a proud team for me to be a part of. That was a special group of guys.

Daniel Solzman: Is there a shortstop that you model your game after?

Matt Reida: No, there’s really—I’m not sure if I’m going to play shortstop or second base here. I try and watch as many big league games as I can. I try and take a little bit from everybody. Like there’s obviously some different guys that model my size, my skill level a little more than others. I try and take a little bit from everybody. There’s no one guy that I really, really look at right now as I model my game after. I think there’s something that you can learn from everybody.

Daniel Solzman: Who was your favorite player growing up?

Matt Reida: Growing up, I always really liked Omar Vizquel when I was younger. He was such a good defender and really fun for me to watch. From a defensive side, I would say Vizquel.

Daniel Solzman: Were you surprised at all by the year that A.J. Reed put up this season with the Cats?

Matt Reida: No, not really. I’ve been around A.J. and seen him do it in high school baseball in Indiana. I’ve been around A.J. the past three years at UK so I’ve seen him do it in practice every day. I can’t really say I’m surprised by what he’s done this year and the numbers he put up. A.J.’s a special kind of talent that you don’t see very often so I’m just proud to be a part of that.

Daniel Solzman: Thanks again for joining us and best of luck with the Rays organization.

Matt Reida: Thank you.

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