Mets put Reid-Foley on IL with shoulder issue
Sean Reid-Foley was feeling good, but not great when he left Port St. Lucie last weekend. The Mets right-handed reliever had dealt with biceps tendinitis during spring training, but was able to make one final Grapefruit League appearance and played catch the following day in Tampa. But then he got to New York and his shoulder, once again, felt off.
“I don’t know if I slept on it wrong or something, but it just didn’t feel good,” Reid-Foley said Friday at Citi Field before the Mets hosted the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day.
The 28-year-old told the Mets that something was up with his shoulder. He was sent for imaging, which revealed an impingement. They placed him on the 15-day injured list to open the season, giving the last bullpen spot to right-hander Yohan Ramirez.
“If you give me the ball at 60 percent or 100 percent, what’s better?” he said. “I made the right decision. And I was honest, I said, ‘I can’t give you the best possible outcome for three outs right now. you’re getting 60-70 percent, which is not cool.’ You guys have seen me at 100 percent and that’s where I want to be. So I think we were all in the loop the whole time. I made the right decision by saying maybe we need to pull the reins back a little and hit the brake pads.”
When asked last week, the Mets said Reid-Foley was healthy and would be ready for Opening Day. When he pitched in that Grapefruit League game against the Miami Marlins last Sunday, his velocity was fine but he couldn’t command the ball the way he wanted to. He gave up two earned runs on two hits and a walk but was removed before recording an out. He threw 23 pitches and didn’t like what he felt and didn’t like that he felt that his control wavered.
“It was definitely control, as you saw from the last outing,” Reid-Foley said. “You guys saw me in spring training, my command and everything was there.”
Reid-Foley lacked the confidence and conviction behind his pitches with the injury.
The Mets are happy he came to them instead of staying quiet about the injury with the potential to make the team.
“When we put him into the game, he continued to say he was feeling OK, feeling fine,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “But I think he just kind of panicked. He wasn’t comfortable letting it loose. The day of the workout, we talked to him before we took the field and then again after the workout. He came in and said, ‘Look, I don’t feel 100 percent.”
The team and Reid-Foley are unconcerned with the injury. He can still play catch so the recovery time isn’t expected to be long, but the Mets aren’t putting a timeline on it. Reid-Foley does not have minor league options, but Ramirez doesn’t either, so the roster decision when he returns could be a tough one.
The Mets are under the microscope this season with injured list transactions after a staffer blew the whistle on former general manager Billy Eppler’s use of the “phantom IL.” Eppler resigned last October, just a few days after David Stearns was hired above him.
Owner and CEO Steve Cohen addressed the issue in his pregame press conference.
“It was unfortunate,” Cohen said. “But they made that conclusion and listen, I’m glad that we caught it in time. Obviously, we want to do things in the right way here. We want to carry ourselves with integrity.”