Sean Reid-Foley (SRF), now 29 years of age, has had career ups and downs.
Drafted in the 2nd round in 2014 by Toronto, he was pretty durable for years, and gradually climbed the ladder.
Dom Hamel
For all of you Dom Hamel lovers out there, SRF (like Hamels) had rough years in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and got past them to have spent parts of 7 seasons in the majors, mostly in relief. Rough how, exactly? Well...
In 2017 in AA, SRF went 10-11, but with an unsightly 5.56 ERA.
In 2018, he was actually good in the minors (12-5, 3.26 in 130 innings) but struggled in his call up to Toronto ((2-4, with a high 5.13 in 33 IP).
In 2019, a lousy 3-5, 6.47 in International League AAA (can't blame that high ERA on pitching in the hitters heaven of the PCL), but SRF had a better 2-4, 4.26 ERA for Toronto. In his Toronto call ups, he was used mostly as a starter, with 13 games started.
Then just 7 innings tossed in Jayville in the shortened COVID 2020 year.
The Mets then picked SRF up in his 8th pro season in 2021.
In 4 years with the Mets, a 3.75 ERA (not bad) but with just 60 innings, an average of 15 innings per year, and just 45 additional innings in the minors in those 4 seasons; his durability in 2015-2019 in the Toronto organization has been followed by an ongoing injury-limiting scenario over the past 4 Mets years.
He had a 1.66 ERA for the Mets in 2024 (wow) but just 22 innings (ugh).
Last week, the Mets (with a ton of pitchers causing 40 man roster challenges) put SRF on waivers to clear the roster - the Mets did it early on, to give him a chance to find another team if he so chose - but he went unclaimed, no doubt due to his health history, and rather than opt to leave, agreed to a minor league assignment with the Mets.
And why not? If he can stay healthy, he will get a parcel of major league innings in 2025 in the Mets' bullpen rotation, and hopefully compile more than last year's 22 innings, and - who knows? - possibly achieve something else that has eluded him all these years - post-season play.
Best of health in what will be your 12th pro season in 2025, Sean.
The trick indeed for SRF is staying healthy.
And finding an opening to come back to. There are competitors like Grant Hartwig, who looked good on Thursday night in the televised match up.
THOUGHTS ON A SPROAT MLB TIMETABLE
Mets fans are frankly more interested in the trajectory of Brandon Sproat that the status of Sean Reid-Foley. "When is this future pitching STUD going to arrive in Queens?"
Let me say this, right up front:
Very few guys are like Paul Skenes and Spencer Strider. How so?
Skenes needed just 27 minor league innings before rocketing to MLB stardom. Strider had just 94 minor league innings. Since then, in the majors, the duo has combined to go 43-13 with an amazing 665 Ks in 443 innings. Those two are simply "wow", while of course we will see if Strider returns to form in 2024 after his TJS in 2024.
Brandon Sproat already has had 116 minor league innings, so (you ask) why isn't he already in the Mets starting rotation plans when Skenes and Strider needed fewer minor league innings to star in the Big Show?
Because pitching meteors like Skenes and Strider are extremely rare.
Heck, Tom Seaver threw 210 innings before he was promoted to a mediocre 1967 Mets pitching staff. Dwight Gooden sure came up young in 1984 at age 19, but he already had 270 minor league innings when he showed up in Queens.
"But", you say, "Tylor Megill had just 45 career innings above A ball when he was called up by the Mets in 2021, right? Why can't Sproat do that?"
Well, Megill's call up was due to an injury-induced Mets starter emergency in 2021, and he had already logged 100 minor league innings in A ball pre-COVID, in 2018 and 2019, so had a thin 140 minor league innings when called up, and thus was already 30 minor league innings above what Sproat accumulated in 2024.
Also, you do remember the Fab 5, Jake, Matz, Thor, Zack, and Matt, right?
Well the five of them averaged over 200 innings in AA and AAA, not to mention that all 5 also had prior innings in the lower minors. We all, especially, wanted Harvey rushed - but he wasn't.
As eager as we all are, it takes time for top talent to develop.
Patience, people, patience.
Since Brandon Sproat is most likely not a Skenes or a Strider, as much as we'd like him to be, I envision him logging a minimum 80 more innings in AAA in 2025 before the Mets call him up, and longer than that if they are not desperate for starting pitching.
80 more innings would put Sproat into the minor league innings range of a Christian Scott, who had 192 career minor league innings before he was called up to start a bunch of games in 2024 when Kodai Senga and others came up lame, with Scott's first start in early May in 2024.
Scott was acing AAA in his starts there in 2024. He had just 42 innings in AAA, with a 2.76 ERA and 55 Ks, a better performance in AAA than Sproat had last year.
Sadly, Scott went winless at 0-3 for the Mets before a guy named Tommy John paid him a season-ending visit in late July, pushing his return out possibly to mid-2026, when Scott will be 27.
The Mets surely could use a fully ready Sproat and Scott in 2026.
So let's not rush Sproat. (But, hurry up, will ya?)
STICKS, STONES - AND SWINGS - MAY BREAK MY BONES,
BUT WORDS WILL NEVER HURT ME
So let me get this straight…
Alvarez breaks a hamate bone during an at bat? Without being hit by a pitch? Out, most lily, until early May?
The Mets Curse appears alive and well.
Recovery information that I found in a 2019 article:
"Hamate bone fractures can keep a hitter out for an extended period, though the recovery time can range from weeks to months. They can also be tough on power hitters, as it can take a while to regain strength in the injured wrist.
"Joey Gallo is recovering from surgery to repair a broken hamate bone in his right wrist. He last played on July 23 and is expected to be out until at least mid-September.
"There are plenty of other examples of hitters who have dealt with hamate fractures. Delino DeShields had the same surgery as Gallo last year and only missed three weeks, but Tim Tebow had his season end in late July when he broke his right hamate bone. Giancarlo Stanton missed the final three months of the 2015 season after fracturing the hamate bone in his left wrist on a swing, while hitters like Nick Markakis (2012) and Troy Tulowitzki (2010) missed about six weeks with their hamate bone injuries."
DR. SUESS, A METS PHYSICIAN, WROTE: "I ate ham, and hamate me."
Someone brought up Yasmani Grandal. I looked a Stat Cast page for catchers defensively. 83 catchers in all were on the list. He was 75th in throwing velocity, and 83rd (last) in pop time. Just say no.
Tommy Boy Nido, if available soon for a possible reunion?
A weak 72nd in velocity, but a fine 18th out of 83 in pop time.
FIVE CAN'T-MISS HOT FREE AGENTS?
Are volume discounts available for these 5 absolute can't-miss names?
Time to stock up on these familiar 30+ player names, I say (facetiously).
Catcher - James McCann (35)
Third Baseman - Danny Mendick (31)
Designated Hitter - J.D. Martinez (37)
Right-Handed Reliever - Phil Maton (32)
Left-Handed Reliever - Brooks Raley (37)
P.S.
Through Sunday, last year's Mets discard, whiffing Trayce Thompson, had 6 HRs in 23 at bats for Boston.
Baseball is WHACK, Dawg.
18 comments:
Nido and Dom Smith combines this spring are 13 for 41, 4 HRs and 17 RBIs.
Me?
SRF - pitched poorly again yesterday. Sad, Should be cut after camp
Sproat - start him off this April in frigid Syracuse.
Mack’s point about April in upstate New York is very serious. Injuries can happen. I would not waste too many of Sproat’s bullets in the minors. One month at most.
Last night in Fangraphs Roster Resource, I learned some stuff about the Mets. The Mets pitching last year was third in hits per nine innings and fifth in HRs. But, they were 22 in K/9, 26 in BB/9, and lucky to only be 17 in WHIP. The hits and HR’s are unsustainable IMO, but the three ugly numbers are very sustainable. SRF was part of the free pass brigade and can take a walk too. If the Mets don’t clean that up, they won’t even finish .500.
SRF needs to go to Syracuse. Unless we cut him now and save $$ doing so. Then cut him altogether.
I frankly would start any elite pitching prospects in St. Lucie. Just for a few weeks until winter ends in Syracuse or Binghamton. I wrote last year that the Mets should make some sort of arrangements to play their first handful of AAA games perhaps for two weeks, or until St. Lucie starts to play their games, in Florida to avoid injuries. Costs increase, but that should be absorbed by the MLB club. It’s a long time back, but I totally believe that Jenrry Mejia was a victim of Tommy John’s surgery because he pitched in frigid weather in Buffalo in early April. Alternatively, if the weather is particularly brutal on a day that sprout is scheduled to start, let somebody else take the start. I even think about Matt Harvey who needed surgery that year in August, but in May pitched in Colorado and Minnesota back to back starts in Temperatures that were hovering around freezing with snow on the ground. Was there any connection? I don’t know, but you never know. People should not be pitching when the windchill factor is 20°.
Sproat or any other pitching Met pitching prospect should not be pitching in Syracuse the first few weeks of the season. It could be snowing.
That's why no Japanese pitcher wants any part of the east coast. Ridiculous to be playing ball in April in the Northeast.
Pitching in cold weather can make it harder to grip the ball, affect accuracy and velocity, cause temporary tightness, and generally fuck with your mind, but there is no proof, if pitchers do the right precautions, that it could cause long term damage
Mack, it's just miserable up there. Who the heck even wants to warm up and practice up there. We should still be in Tidewater. Why did we ever leave in the first place? Both AA/AAA teams should be there.
Joe, in 2019, I watched games on MILB TV. I haven't since due to poor quality of picture then.
But in April Binghamton and Syracuse NIGHT GAMES in the first 3 weeks of April, there were virtually no fans in the stands due to wintry temperatures and winds. The fans that were on camera were wearing bulky winter gear. And the scheduling (probably for MILB TV) was at night many times, so in the day, it might have been 46 degrees, but at night, 30 and windy.
So, again...why not play those first few weeks' home games in Florida? You'll draw more fans there. And players can safely pitch in BASEBALL weather. They start playing NIGHT GAMES in Syracuse and Binghamton in the first week of April!!
Note to owners: I have NEVER attended a night game in April. Can't say I never will. But if I do, it will be a weather-based, "day of" game" purchase decision. I cannot believe I am the only one.
Again...
There is no "un-safety" pith=ching in the cold
Sorry Mack, I just can't agree with you on that one. Like Tom said would you want to be out on 30 degree evening? You're sitting there in the freezing cols. Then after resting you have to go out and start running or pitching in the freezing cold. I can hear the hammy's popping from here.
Remember Paul Wilson i always thought his career was negativity impacted by cold weather way back then.
Paul Wilson was handled very badly by internal camp coaches
JoeP, that is exactly what happened to Drew Gilbert last Arpil on a cold day
Mack, imagine trating the draft's # 1 overall pick poorly?
I remember Koos pitching in 1970 in Montreal (real great idea) and he complained about arm soarness after his start but nothing that I know of was done and he ended up with a good career but I often wondered how it affected him long term. He was as good a lefthander as there was in baseball at the time and although good after that he was never quite the same. Another time I remember Harvey pitching in April in friggin freezing Buffalo while it was snowing and thinking wait a minute isn't he our top prospect and should he be pitching in this weather in a meaningless game?
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