Blue Jays prospect Sean Reid-Foley unhittable in Dunedin

Toronto Blue Jays top prospect Sean Reid-Foley had the strongest outing of his young career on Friday night with Dunedin, pitching 5.1 innings of no-hit ball while striking out six. Reid-Foley did allow four walks along the way as he worked to repeat his mechanics more consistently, but this outing has garnered the 19-year old some well-earned hype.

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“Just established the fastball for strikes and kept doing everything that Vince [Horsman] and Jeff [Ware] and whoever told me all year,” Reid-Foley told Danny Wild of MiLB.com, referencing his pitching coaches at Dunedin and Class A Lansing. “Pound the zone with the fastball.”

Following the departure of top-end prospects like Jeff Hoffman, Daniel Norris, Miguel Castro and Matt Boyd, Reid-Foley is one of the names that Toronto will be relying on to climb the ladder. It hasn’t been a highlight reel every night for Reid-Foley with the Dunedin Blue Jays, allowing a combined 12 earned runs over his past three starts before this, but his ceiling is immense.

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The right-hander now ranks fourth among the organization’s top prospects according to MLB.com, with 2015 first round pick Jon Harris the only pitcher above him. While many profile Harris as a strong middle-of-the-rotation arm with a more comfortable floor to his potential, Reid-Foley offers Blue Jays fans the raw potential to dream on. At 19, he’s also got all the time in the world.

Reid-Foley will offer up a fastball in the mid-90s that should be his ticket to the Major Leagues down the road. He’s a big-bodied pitching prospect at 6’3″, 220 pounds, and his natural athleticism should allow him to maintain this velocity deep into games without great strain. He also throws a quality slider, has a changeup with potential and is developing a complimentary curveball, although that’s still long down the road.

He represents another piece of value drafting by Alex Anthopoulos with the 49th overall selection (Round 2). Many Blue Jays fans have cringed at the diminished depth in Toronto’s system following the recent trade deadline, but Reid-Foley will have every opportunity to develop into a number one, blue-chip prospect over the next two seasons. He’s no sure thing, no prospect is, but he’s a name that is going undervalued by mainstream discussions around this farm system.

At this point in his development, it’s still not time to look at numbers. Take a look at some of Roberto Osuna‘s stats in the Minor Leagues, if you need proof. The remainder of this season and his 2016 campaign will focus on polishing up his mechanics, and once his delivery is consistently right, the sky is the limit.

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