Blue Jays Acquire Pitcher Steven Matz
Photo Via: Mitchell Layton - Getty Images
The Blue Jays and Mets officially announced a trade late Wednesday night.
TOR Gets: LHP Steven Matz
NYM Gets: RHP Sean Reid-Foley, RHP Yennsy Díaz & RHP Josh Winckowski
Matz is due $5.2 million this season and the Blue Jays are taking on the full amount of that salary. He struggled in 2020, going 0-5 with a 9.68 ERA, but has been effective at times for the Mets. He posted 152 strikeouts in 154 innings with a 3.97 ERA in 2018. The trade adds more depth and upside to an underwhelming Blue Jays’ starting rotation.
The Mets were able to shed some salary while adding three young arms. Reid-Foley has logged 71.2 career major league innings across the past three seasons. Now at age 25, Reid-Foley is primed to remain in the majors as a back-end starter or long reliever, but may spend some time in the minors if he struggles. Díaz (24 years old, becomes Mets’ 30th ranked prospect on MLB rankings) was on Toronto’s major league team for a cup of coffee in 2019. He saw 0.2 innings of action and surrendered two runs. However, he did have a 3.74 ERA in Double-A in that same year. Winckowski (entering age-23 season, becomes Mets’ 26th ranked prospect on MLB rankings) has never pitched above High-A, but has been decent in the minor leagues with a 3.35 ERA in 263 career innings.
The trade was the first for Mets’ Interim General Manager Zack Scott, who took over the position this week after the firing of Jared Porter.