Sean Reid-Foley

Sean Ian Reid-Foley

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 220 lb.
• High School Sandalwood High School
• Debut August 13, 2018

• Born August 30, 1995 in Agana Heights Guam

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Biographical Information

Pitcher Sean Reid-Foley was the second player born in Guam to reach the major leagues, after John Hattig. He was a second-round draft choice of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2014 amateur draft, out of a high school in Florida.

He had a great season in the minor leagues in 2018, combining to go 12-4, 2.98 between the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the AAA Buffalo Bisons before being called up to make his debut on August 13th. In a rare circumstance, his battery mate that day was his catcher in Buffalo, Danny Jansen who was also making his major league debut, something which had not happened since April 14, 1967 when Billy Rohr and Russ Gibson had started a game for the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees (that was the game in which Rohr famously came within one out of pitching a no-hitter in his debut). Things did not go as well for Sean, but he still pitched 5 solid innings, giving up 3 runs, while managing to work his way out of a couple of jams by inducing double play grounders. All three runs he gave up came courtesy of another raw rookie, Ryan O'Hearn, who came into the game hitting .130 for the Kansas City Royals but hit a two-run, opposite field homer in the 2nd, and then drew a bases-loaded walk in the 4th. Unfortunately for Sean, the Jays were unable to give him much offensive support, and he ended up a 3-1 loser. He made 7 starts that first season, going 2-4, 5.13.

In 2019, Sean again split his time between AAA and the majors, but did not have great results at either stops. With Buffalo, he went 3-5, 6.47 in 20 games and in Toronto he was 2-4, 4.26 in 9 games. Walks were a big issue for him in AAA, as he gave up 65 in 89 innings, whereas in Toronto, he saw his strikeout rate crater: he had picked up 42 Ks while walking 21 batters in 33 1/3 innings in 2018, and in 2019, in 31 2/3 innings, he still walked 21 batters, but struck out just 28. He still had good stuff, but his lack of control meant that he had tumbled a number of rungs down the team's depth chart. The shortened 2020 season proved to be a problem for him as he would normally have been assigned back to AAA to work out his control issues. Since there was no minor league ball being played (and the Blue Jays had taken up temporary residence in Buffalo in the meantime because of restrictions on cross-border travel imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic), he was at the team's secondary training site for most of the season, making a few trips to the majors when there was a roster crunch. These were not ideal circumstances for him, but he did quite well when he had the chance to take the mound in an actual game. In 5 appearances, all in relief, he went 1-0, 1.35 with 6 strikeouts and just 3 hits allowed in 6 2/3 innings - although he still managed to walk 6 batters. He looked like he could have a future in a big league bullpen, but it was not going to be with the Jays as on January 27, 2021 he was one of three young pitchers traded to the New York Mets to acqure big league veteran Steven Matz. Accompanying him were Yennsy Diaz and Josh Winckowski.

His brother David Reid-Foley pitched in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization from 2014-2016.

Related Sites

• Sean Reid-Foley on mlb.com