Jeremy Reed on mission to return to the M's

TACOMA — Jeremy Reed still sports the Mariners' blue, green and silver. Only now it's without the Mariners' logo on the front.

Reed is a Tacoma Rainier, and his future as a Mariner is up in the air. It didn't used to be that way.

Once regarded as the Mariners' center fielder of the future, Reed struggled with his hitting in 2006. He batted .217 before an early July thumb injury put him on the disabled list for the rest of the season.

Despite the setback, Reed still has big-league dreams and is pursuing them with a positive attitude.

"Everybody wants to be there, and having some time [in the majors], I want to be there, too," Reed said. "I'm just going to work on what I can [in Tacoma] and play my best and work my way back there."

In 2005, Reed appeared on his way to a solid major-league career. He was, at 23, the youngest player on the Mariners' opening-day roster. He hit .254 in 141 games, with 33 doubles. More was expected the next year, but Reed's numbers dropped significantly.

Things didn't get much better in spring training this year.

"I think I was just trying to get my swing together and get some more at-bats under my belt ... Toward the end, I started to come out pretty good and was ready to go," Reed said. "It just kind of happened. The numbers didn't really fall my way, and I ended up back here, and that's just kind of the way it went."

Reed couldn't crack the Mariners' roster, and found himself back in Tacoma for the first time since 2004. The Mariners wanted him to play every day in Tacoma, something he wouldn't have done in Seattle.

"At that time, it was probably best for him to get some good playing time," said Frank Mattox, Seattle's director of player development.

Being in Tacoma gives Reed, now 26, a chance to hone his skills and share his experience with the other Rainiers. Mattox said he has already shown improvement.

"He's been a leader in the clubhouse," Mattox said. "He's driving some balls out of the ballpark, and he's also driving them into the gaps.

"We still hold Jeremy Reed in high regard."

This season, Reed has had an eight-game hitting streak and is batting .290 at the AAA All-Star break. He's third on the Rainiers with 102 hits and his defense has been solid. More important, perhaps, the nagging injuries aren't there.

"He plays the game really hard," said Jeff Clement, Reed's Tacoma teammate. "He's going to do the little things. He's going to steal a base. He's going to do a lot of things some guys are afraid to do. He's just got a lot of baseball savvy. That's something you can't really teach or coach."

Reed must be patient if he is to get back to the big leagues, as the Rainiers feature two hot outfield prospects, Adam Jones and Wladimir Balentien.

Mattox said Reed's chances of getting called up are a matter of timing, opportunity and performance.

"I don't know that we can do anything different," Mattox said. "We're just trying to give him at-bats, and right now he's waiting for his opportunity."

Reed remains hopeful.

"Wherever you're at you've got to compete," he said. "And that's basically what I'm doing ... trying to get myself better and back to where I was."

Michelle Conerly is a senior-to-be at Renton's Liberty High School. She participated in Seattle University's week-long summer journalism workshop last month and was advised by Times staff reporter Jose Miguel Romero for this article.

Photographer Kateri Town is a sophomore-to-be at La Salle High School in Union Gap, Wash., who also participated in the workshop.