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Blue Jays 2015 Top Prospects Wrap Up: Sean Reid-Foley

By Shaun Doyle

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It seems that the Lansing Lugnuts had quite a big year thanks to some of the top prospects the Toronto Blue Jays have. There was a healthy infusion of talent this year in Lansing. One such talent is RHP, Sean Reid-Foley. The 20 year old 2nd round pick of the 2014 draft made strides this year and saw his stock rise in the Blue Jays system. Starting the season in A ball, he watched several higher ranked players depart. When all was said and done, he ended the season in Dunedin with room to grow.

Reid-Foley made 25 starts in total this season after throwing just 22.2 innings all of 2014. 17 of those starts came with the Lugnuts where he compiled a 3-5 record and a 3.69 ERA. His 63.1 innings pitched yielded a WHIP of 1.579 that included 43 walks and an eye-popping 90 strike outs! That’s a 2.09 K/BB ratio. While his 12.8 K/9 is very impressive, he’ll likely need to build on his command. 6.1 BB/9 innings is obviously less than ideal, much like his 8.1 hits per 9. Though, this is less concerning than the command issues. To further demonstrate his lack of command, he also threw 7 wild pitches and hit 5 batters. Again, in 63 innings.

Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays /

Toronto Blue Jays

Despite his command being an issue, the organization promoted him to Dunedin at the beginning of July. There, he didn’t have much more success than at his previous stop. He went 1-5 with a 5.23 ERA. Now, these stats aren’t exactly a great measure of success or performance. But, perhaps his other numbers will help. In 32.2 innings, he gave up 25 hits, 24 walks to go with 35 strike outs. Again, the whiff totals are nice, even if the 9.6/9 is a decrease. The wild pitches (4) were still an issue. As were the HBP with 2. That’s not a huge number, but given the small inning sample, it does point to control problems.

Likely, Redi-Foley has some work to do to harness his tantalizing strike out stuff. According to MLB Pipeline, Reid-Foley has the ability to “pound the zone”. And, at 20 years old, he has lots of time to develop into his middle of the rotation expectations. As for right now, Blue Jays fans should not expect that he will be seeing time in the Rogers Centre soon. The command really needs to develop.

As harsh as all of the above sounds, we have to remember that he is not that far removed from pitching in high school in Jacksonville, Florida. The fact that he was said to be a difficult sign and the organization forked over more than $1M after the 2014 draft shows the Blue Jays’ eagerness and faith they have in him. We shouldn’t let his walk totals worry us.

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MLB Pipeline has him listed as the Blue Jays’ #4 prospect after Dalton Pompey, Jonathan Harris and Anthony Alford. If this were a few months ago, he would not rank so high. But, the organization shed themselves of a number of top arms this summer in trades. So, Reid-Foley rose through the ranks almost by default. That is not to say he has little value, though. He has good potential.

Likely, we’d like to see him collect more innings. His “full” season this year consisted of just 96 innings. That is just 9 more innings than Aaron Sanchez has thrown to date in 2015. Now, Reid-Foley started the whole season, but never threw more than 5.2 innings in an outing. He did that back on May 30 and struck out 10 in the process. And, that about sums up the year for Sean Reid-Foley.

He has brought some excitement with his K totals, but remains a work in progress. Growth will be needed to harness his stuff to cut down on the walk totals. Ideally, you’d like to see him get a more innings under his belt, too. Realistically speaking, a return to Dunedin would not be all that surprising. If he can stretch himself out a bit and improve his command, then AA New Hampshire is in his future. But, he’ll have to demonstrate improvement.

Next: Blue Jays MiLB Wrap Up: Anthony Alford

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