Mets Release Sean Reid-Foley

The Mets have released right-hander Sean Reid-Foley, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. He’d been pitching at Triple-A Syracuse after the Mets passed him through waivers unclaimed during spring training and assigned him outright to their top affiliate.

The 29-year-old Reid-Foley has long been a tantalizing arm but has yet to capitalize on all of his potential. He was a second-round pick, 49th overall, by the 2014 Blue Jays and ranked among their system’s top prospects before being traded to the Mets alongside Josh Winckowski and Yennsy Diaz in the 2021 trade that sent Steven Matz to Toronto.

Reid-Foley has had an up-and-down tenure with the Mets, finding success and posting big strikeout rates at times but also battling myriad injuries that have limited him to just 60 big league innings and 57 1/3 minor league frames in four-plus years with the organization. That includes a 2022 Tommy John procedure that cost him more than a calendar year.

Reid-Foley returned from that injury in 2023, pumping better than 95-97 mph on his heater and missing bats at a huge level. From 2023-24, he pitched 29 1/3 innings in the majors and logged a 2.15 ERA with an excellent 33.1% strikeout rate and strong 13.3% swinging-strike rate …. against a woeful 16.1% walk rate.

Command has never been a strong point for Reid-Foley, but his walk troubles have escalated in recent years. Beyond that ugly 16.1% walk rate in his post-TJS tenure with the Mets, he’s also dished out a free pass to 18.4% of his opponents in Triple-A this season. As one might expect, Reid-Foley also sports a big strikeout rate (31.6%), but between those walks and a hefty four home runs in only 14 innings pitched this year, he’s been saddled with an 8.36 ERA in Syracuse. His fastball, which averaged 94.9 mph in the majors last year, has sat 93.8 mph so far in 2025. (However, he posted a matching 93.8 mph average fastball in the minors last season.)

Reid-Foley, by all accounts, is healthy at the moment. He pitched two shutout innings with three punchouts and no walks as recently as May 18 against the Phillies’ top affiliate in Lehigh Valley. He’ll be a project arm for any team that wants to speculate on a minor league contract. His command struggles are an obvious blemish on his overall record, as is the potential velo dip. But there’s no risk for another organization in taking a flier on a reliever who has shown huge swing-and-miss ability and has had some degree of big league success — particularly since Reid-Foley would be controllable for two more years via arbitration if he’s eventually able to rein in his command and get back to MLB success.