The Mets didn’t tender a contract to first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith, a former high prospect of the group, and right-hander Sean Reid-Foley. The membership introduced Friday night time they’d tender contracts to all different gamers signed for the 2023 season and past.
Smith, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native, was drafted by the Mets with the eleventh general choose in 2013. He was promoted to the Major Leagues in 2017 and slashed .246/.308/.424 with a .733 OPS and 46 residence runs over six seasons.
Smith was as soon as ranked as excessive as No. 29 general on Keith Law’s top-100 prospects record and was the second-best prospect for the Mets coming into the 2017 season. The membership noticed a power-hitting first baseman who wanted refining. They requested him to drop some pounds and he dropped 24 kilos working with former energy guide Mike Barwis earlier than the 2017 season, however his left-handed energy bat by no means actually got here to be. He battled foot and ankle accidents and the emergence of Pete Alonso created a visitors jam at first base.
His finest season got here in 2020 when he hit .316 with 10 residence runs in the course of the COVID-shortened marketing campaign. Smith spent a lot of the 2022 season with Triple-A Syracuse and appeared to sense an exit from Queens in September when the membership introduced him to Atlanta as a part of the taxi squad.
Smith was energetic within the Mets’ numerous charitable endeavors all through his time in New York. He gave an emotional press convention in 2020 within the wake of the loss of life of Jacob Blake. But lengthy earlier than he knelt for the nationwide anthem, Smith was serving to inner-city youth discover baseball in his native South Central Los Angeles.
Reid-Foley got here to the Mets from the Toronto Blue Jays previous to the 2021 season as a part of the commerce for left-hander Steven Matz. In two seasons with the Mets, he went 5-1 with a 5.28 ERA in 19 video games. He struggled with elbow accidents and missed time final season with a partially-torn ulnar collateral ligament.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com