Sort of. Reaper's much less reliant on catching people totally unaware than the spy is. For example, if one of your tanks is making an opening, Reaper's fine with being on the front line with them, much more so than other flankers, in my opinion, since his damage is much higher than theirs (making him much more of a legitimate threat to tanks). Once he gets to that 'knife fight' sort of range, he doesn't much care how he got there or (to a lesser extent) who he's there with.
The nature of his escape also wants him a little closer to the front lines since, if things go south, he has to be able to make it to a place whoever's threatening to kill him can't follow (ie: the rest of his team) otherwise they'll just walk alongside him and kill him after.