The Blue Jays added another pitcher on Wednesday night, acquiring Steven Matz from the Mets in exchange for three right-handed pitchers: Sean Reid-Foley, Yennsy Diaz and Josh Winckowski.
Matz is coming out of a brutal 2020 season, but the only prospects the Blue Jays have given up have ranked in the 31-40 range on his system, with Reid-Foley a former top 10 contender who has struggled to deliver value in major leagues. Negotiating Diaz and Reid-Foley also opens a 40-man roster for the Blue Jays to add free agent Marcus Semien.
Matz signed a $ 5.2 million one-year contract to avoid arbitration this off-season and will become a free agent after the 2021 season.
Recognition reports below …
METS ACQUIRE
Yennsy Diaz, RHP
Was: 24
Ranked No. 32 on the Blue Jays system in the 2021 Baseball America Prospect Handbook, Diaz developed as a starter through Double-A, although his future is likely to be in the bullpen. He made his major league debut in a replacement role in 2019, although he did not play in the major leagues last year. It launches a fast ball that can reach 160 km / h in short periods, but it does not have an effective secondary field to miss clubs, which is evident in its pedestrian speed. His control has improved over the years, but he still needs to throw more hits, especially without a real shot he can rely on.
Josh Winckowski, RHP
Was: 22
The Mets – like any other club – could have contributed to Winckowski for almost nothing in December, when he was available in the draft of Rule 5 in December, but he was not selected. In a deep Blue Jays agricultural system, Winckowski was ranked Toronto’s potential number 39 in the 2021 Baseball America Prospect Handbook. A choice in the 15th round in 2016, Winckowski posted a combined ERA of 2.69 with a 108-43 K-BB mark on 127.1 entries between two Class A levels in 2019. He is a solid attack launcher who does not went to the Toronto alternative training site for the last year, but went to the instructional league, where he ran his fastball up to 96 mph towards the end of the camp and was in the process of learning a divider.
Sean Reid-Foley, RHP
Was: 25
The Blue Jays chose Reid-Foley as a second-round high school pick in 2014. Throughout his time at the organization, Reid-Foley showed promising things with inconsistent results, with many of his problems stemming from fastball command. He hit 65 hits on 89 entries as a starter in Triple-A in 2019, and in 71.2 entries over three major league seasons, he has a career walking rate of 6.0 BB / 9. A reliever in 2020, Reid-Foley operated mainly at 150 to 96 km / h last year and can reach 97 km / h. Its main displacement weapon is a 133 to 88 km / h slider, an average slope that has blinked better in the past, but is also inconsistent. It launches an occasional change, mainly to give lefties another look, but it was not effective against major league hitters. Reid-Foley’s material is good enough to stick around in a substitute role, but he has to improve his command to make it happen, otherwise he puts hitters on many advantageous counts and issues many walks.
Sean Reid-Foley provides evidence of player development
The 2014 second-round player saw an increase in speed during development on the team’s alternate website.
BLUE JAYS ACQUIRE
Steven Matz, LHP
Was: 29
Matz fought for a tough 2020 season, posting an ERA of 9.68 while allowing 14 home runs in 30.2 innings. That performance eventually led the Mets to remove him from the initial rotation before he went on the list of injured people with shoulder problems. These struggles are alarming, although it was a small sample size in a pandemic, with Matz launching more as a solid 2018-19 backend. If he can get back into shape, that would be an incentive for a Blue Jays team that needs help at the back of their rotation.