Ever since Jose Reyes started off the season by not walking until May 3, there have been a few distinct lines of thought regarding the occasionally dazzling Mets shortstop. One is that he’s not yet a player of major league quality, and that he should be sent to the minor leagues until he learns to tell a strike from a ball. Another is that he’s not ready for the majors yet, but that forcing him to play above his head is the best way to develop his substantial gifts. A third is that despite his inability to draw a walk, Reyes makes up for his subpar on-base average with his speed, partly because he scores such a high percentage of the times he is on base, and is thus a net plus atop the batting order.

There’s a much simpler position to take on Reyes: He’s clearly an offensive asset. National League shortstops are hitting .260 AVG/.309 OBA/.375 SLG this year, while Reyes is hitting .280/.303/.382. He’s only one off the league lead in stolen bases, and he gets caught on only 20% of his attempts, a remarkable rate. Statistically – and this has been true even when Reyes was playing at his worst, with an OBA that was all the way down to .277 – there’s no way to argue he’s anything worse than a slightly below average offensive player for his position.

Past that, Reyes is the sort of player whose value really does transcend his statistics. His kind of speed and game awareness can make a difference in individual games. In the second inning of Saturday’s game against the Cubs, for instance, Reyes moved from first to second on a fly ball to shallow center field, promptly stole third base and scored on a single. That was the second Mets run in a game that ended up 2-0; Reyes’s run, which he scored more or less single-handedly, gave Jae Seo the margin of error he needed to throw strikes and get ahead of hitters, knowing that even a mistake pitch would still leave him with the lead. Reyes was able to score this run not only because of his physical gifts, but because he picked up on what was going around him and acted on it in an instant. He’s been making this kind of heady, aggressive play more and more consistently lately, which is an excellent sign for his long-term development.

In that light, his recent torrid play might be regarded not just as a hot streak, but as his rapid maturation. This makes a lot of sense, as Reyes played all of 343 games in the minors, and was starting in the majors before he was old enough to drink. Why shouldn’t a light go on suddenly? That’s what I think is happening.

During his current 19-game hitting streak – a period that’s seen Reyes hit .373 (34-for-91), score 19 runs, and raise his batting average from .258 to .280 – something pretty notable has happened: Reyes has simply stopped striking out. He’s been punched out just six times over those 19 games, and walked three times. That signifies what I’d describe as a fundamentally more patient approach. Reyes has been laying off more breaking balls, especially those pitched inside when he’s batting from the left side of the plate, and he’s hitting down on the ball more, which is allowing him to beat out more grounders for base hits. This is just the approach everyone has wanted him to use, and there’s no reason he can’t be consistently successful with it.

Last month, taken as a whole, Reyes hit .328/.355/.403, walking five times and striking out eight, and so long as he can stay consistent with his approach, that’s the player he can be right now, which is excellent.

It would of course be wonderful if Reyes started walking 150 times a year, but plate discipline is about more than drawing walks. It’s also about picking out pitches to hit, and by reducing his strikeouts so dramatically while being choosier about what to swing at and so reducing the number of weak pop-ups, Reyes has adopted the approach of a legitimate .320 hitter. If he can do that, while drawing a walk here and there, his on-base average combined with his speed will make him a terrifying leadoff man.

And this is before factoring in what will be dramatic improvement as he fills out physically and gets wise to how pitchers are working him and how best to prepare himself to play.

None of this should come as any surprise. Young players have their ups and downs, and teams have to be patient with them. No one who’s been paying attention to the Mets could possibly have not seen how stunningly talented Reyes is, or the sheer joy he takes in playing. What we’re seeing now is still just the barest hint of his potential.