Alex Reyes' return to the St. Louis Cardinals was short-lived.

Reyes, the Cardinals' top prospect, will miss the remainder of the 2018 season following surgery to repair a torn lat tendon on Wednesday, the team announced. He'll need six months of recovery time, but general manager Michael Girsch said that Reyes is expected to be fully recovered in time for next year's spring training.

The surgery, performed Wednesday following confirmation of the injury, re-attached the damaged tendon to Reyes' bone.

"Based on that exam and the understanding that, because there was some fraying between the lat and the bone, based on that, they decided to do surgery after consulting with our doctors," Girsch said, according to Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He had surgery to reattach the tendon to the bone and the good news is the tendon was partially frayed and not completely torn off which means there was good blood flow which means they're very optimistic for recovery."

Reyes sustained the injury during his start on May 30, which was his first big-league appearance since recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2016.

The 23-year-old has been plagued by significant injuries during his brief career. After making his major-league debut in 2016, Reyes injured his ulnar collateral ligament and then required well over a year to recover from the subsequent Tommy John procedure. He finally returned to the majors last month after not allowing a run during his minor-league rehab assignment, but lasted only four innings in his May 30 start before leaving that game with what turned out to be the lat injury.

In 13 major-league appearances (six starts), Reyes owns a 1.44 ERA, 1.220 WHIP, and 54 strikeouts.

Despite only throwing 50 major-league innings in his career, Reyes will have accrued two years and 55 days of MLB service time once next April rolls around thanks to his being stashed on the Cardinals' big-league disabled list for several extended periods, per Redbird Dugout's Jon Doble.