The Mets acquire three prospects from the Blue Jays

The Blue Jays added another pitcher late 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 off a brutal 2020 season, but the only prospects the Blue Jays have given up are in the 31-40 range in their system, with Reid-Foley, a former top-10 who struggled to offer any value in the major leagues. Trading Diaz and Reid-Foley are also opening a 40-man roster for the Blue Jays to add the signing of free agent Marcus Semien.

Matz has signed a one-year, $ 5.2 million contract to avoid arbitrage this offseason and will become a free agent after the 2021 season.

Screening reports below …

METS ACQUIRE

Yennsy Diaz, RHP
Age: 24

Ranked No.32 in the Blue Jays’ system in the 2021 Baseball America Prospect Handbook, Diaz developed as a starter thanks to Double-A, although his future is likely in the bullpen. He made his major league debut in a relief role in 2019, though he didn’t play in the big leagues last year. He throws a lively fastball that can hit 98mph in short throws, but lacks an effective secondary pitch to be able to miss bats, which is seen in his pedestrian rates. His control has improved over the years, but he still has to throw more strikes, especially without real ground to rely on.

Josh Winckowski, RHP
Age: 22

The Mets – like any other club – could have added for Winckowski for next to nothing in December while he was available in the Rule 5 draft in December, but he was not selected. In a deep farming system of the Blue Jays, Winckowski placed Toronto’s 39th prospect in the 2021 Baseball America Prospect Handbook. A 15th-round pick in 2016, Winckowski posted a combined average of 2.69 with a K-BB 108-43 mark in 127.1 innings between two Class A levels in 2019. He’s a strong strike thrower who did not make it to the alternative training site in Toronto last. year but went to the teaching league, where he ran his fastball up to 96 mph near the end of camp and was in the process of learning a splitter.

Sean Reid-Foley, RHP
Age: 25

The Blue Jays drafted Reid-Foley as a second-round pick out of high school in 2014. Throughout his time with the organization, Reid-Foley aired promising stuff with inconsistent results, several of his problems arising from the command of the fastball. He walked 65 batters in 89 innings as a starter in Triple-A in 2019, and in 71.2 innings over three major league seasons, he has a career walk rate of 6.0 BB / 9. in 2020, Reid-Foley ran primarily at 93-96 mph last year and can hit 97. His primary offset weapon is an 83-88 mph slider, an average pitch that has blinked best in the past but is also inconsistent. He throws an occasional change primarily to give left-handed people another look, but it hasn’t been effective against major league hitters. Reid-Foley’s stuff is good enough to stay in a relief role, but he needs to improve his fluency to make that happen or else he puts hitters in too many advantageous counts and generates too many walks.

ACQUIRE BLUE JAYS

Steven Matz, LHP
Age: 29

Matz struggled through a tough 2020 season, posting a 9.68 ERA while allowing 14 homers in 30.2 innings. That performance ultimately led the Mets to remove him from the starting rotation before he was on the injured list with shoulder issues. These struggles are alarming, even though this was a small sample size in a pandemic, with Matz looking more like a solid back-end starter from 2018-19. If he can return to that form, it would be a boost for a Blue Jays team that needs help in the back of their rotation.