The D-backs have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Sean Reid-Foley, per the club’s transaction log. The Wasserman client, who was released by the Mets last week, will head to Triple-A Reno for the time being.
Reid-Foley has spent four-plus seasons in the Mets organization, originally landing there as part of the return in 2021’s Steven Matz trade with the Blue Jays. He’s shown huge swing-and-miss ability but also persistent command troubles — all amid ongoing injury problems. Most notably, he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022, which wiped out more than a calendar year. Reid-Foley also had multiple stints on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement in 2024. He didn’t pitch after Aug. 13 last season.
Now 29 years old, Reid-Foley has shown obvious promise in the majors but also plenty of red flags. From 2023-24, he tossed 29 1/3 big league innings with a 2.15 ERA, a 33.1% strikeout rate and a 13.3% swinging-strike rate. He also walked more than 16% of his opponents in that time, however. Overall, he’s pitched 131 2/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate and 14.2% walk rate in the majors.
The Mets passed Reid-Foley through waivers during spring training but held onto him as a depth arm. He’s spent the season with their Triple-A club in Syracuse, again missing plenty of bats but battling poor location. He tossed 14 innings and was tagged for 13 runs on 20 hits and 14 walks. Even while stumbling to the resulting 8.36 ERA, Reid-Foley punched out 31.6% of his opponents with a mighty 14.8% swinging-strike rate, but he also walked 18.4% of the batters he faced and let three wild pitches sail. On top of those struggles, Reid-Foley has seen his fastball velocity drop; he averaged 93.8 mph in Syracuse — down from last year’s 94.9 mph and down even further from the 96.1 mph he averaged in his 2023 return from surgery.
While he’s a project, Reid-Foley offers the type of swing-and-miss capabilities that don’t come around all that frequently. If he can get back on track and earn a big league look — a major “if,” given how his season has played out — the D-backs would be able to control him via arbitration for two additional years.