A lot of high school prospects hit and pitch, but very few keep doing it in pro ball.
The Marlins planned to develop the 6-foot-8 Sean Reynolds as a power-hitting first baseman/outfielder when they selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 amateur draft.
When he failed to top the Mendoza line in four minor league seasons, Reynolds leaned on his pitching. He emerged from the COVID-canceled minor league season as a hard-throwing reliever.
The Padres acquired Reynolds (and Garrett Cooper) in the summer of 2023 for pitcher Ryan Weathers. Reynolds made his big-league debut last year, and has posted a 3.00 ERA in 18 career innings.
(Editor’s note: This Q&A was edited for length and clarity).
You hit and pitched at Redondo Union High School. The Marlins drafted you as a hitter. Thinking back to that day, what did you think your future was going to be in this game?
A: Obviously, the day you hear your name called, you think you’re going to be in the big leagues at some point, playing every day. And that was certainly the goal when I when I signed. Looking back and knowing what I know now, wouldn’t change anything. But also would know that the road to get there was a lot more bumpy than one might think when you first get taken off the board. I fully planned on making it as a hitter.
What was it like for you when things got rocky as a hitter?
A: It was tough, dude. It was tough. A lot of days in there where you just think it will never end. When you’re 18, 19, 20 years old, you don’t really know anything about life in general other than what you know. And I’d always been a good player and I’d always found ways to have success. I just couldn’t understand why I was just playing so terrible every single day. And to be honest with you, that really was as much the problem as it was what was actually happening, because just looking back on those years, I was just playing with the hope that one day it would magically get better. Not saying I wasn’t putting in the work, grinding … because I was. Every day we were there at extended spring training. You’re there at 7 a.m. every day and early work, team fundamental, individual fundamental, batting practice, game — every day. So it’s like, you know, you’re putting in the work and you’re putting in the time, and it’s like why are the results not following that? And you know, the biggest thing for me, like looking back at it, I just played with too much hope. You can’t play professional sports with hope. You have to know and you have to trust and you have to believe in the work that you put in and play free, and playing with hope gets you nowhere.
Had you given up on pitching?
A: Given up in of I wasn’t doing it. I was fully committed to being an outfielder/first baseman. But it wasn’t until COVID. Our season got canceled, obviously, and just had some free time to kind of mess around and enjoy the game again and not really worry about the stress of professional baseball. So just started throwing again and building up my arm. And I had an arm injury that year and I couldn’t really throw the ball. Like, I got to the point where I was just like chicken-winging it. Could throw 90 feet and that was about it. And I was like, I want my arm to be a tool again even if I am playing first base. I always at least want to be able to put some zip on it without pain. So got really into strengthening my shoulder and my elbow and started building my arm up. And then I was like, just having fun again. It was like, yeah, I’ll get on the mound and chuck it a little bit. I used to be pretty good at this. Let’s see if I can still throw it. And then I threw a couple joke bullpens for fun. It was what it was, but I didn’t really have any real plans until probably halfway through the summer when we got canceled. I was like, you know what, I hit a buck-something for five years. Maybe I’ll just give it a try. I called my agent and let him know. I was like, Hey, I’m going to ask them if I can do this. He said go for it. Then they actually came to me first and was like, “We know you used to pitch. Do you want to get on a mound?” I said sure, why not?
So you had already thought about it?
A: Yeah, it was kind of a happy coincidence. I was kind of already thinking it. Obviously me, in my infinite wisdom, thought I could be the next Shohei Ohtani at the time. Like, if I could figure out the hitting piece and throw 97, that would be crazy.
There goes that hope again.
A: Exactly. But I had given it some serious thought. And then they asked me first, and I was like, yeah why not? I’d already been thinking about it. My arm already was feeling good. I started getting on a real throwing program and arm care and, yada yada yada, you know, all the stuff that goes with pitching. By the time that next spring rolled around, I was ready to go and throwing well. I think I hit 94, 95 in my first live spring training game. They were like, “OK, let’s take this a little more seriously.” And that’s when it shifted to, “You’re going to be a pitcher.” Put the bat down and here we are.
You were knocking on the door with the Marlins when you got traded to San Diego and then you experience El Paso. That did not look like a fun time, just looking at the numbers.
A: Yeah, it was a struggle again. There’s a lot of things that go into being successful at anything, but especially in a game like this and a level like this, you got to just really be committed to bringing the best version of yourself to the clubhouse every day. And there were a lot of things that were going on in that particular period of time that both on and off the field for me that maybe I wasn’t the best at separating. But also dealing with a new environment, a new organization, trying to maybe do too much and really show them that I can do it. And then just a couple bad outings, all of a sudden it starts to spiral the wrong way. You want to spiral up and sometimes it goes the other way. Those were a rough couple of weeks. I think it was like a month and a half-ish, but at the same time, like, going back to the dark days and months and years that I had trying to figure out how to hit the ball. I just look back at that and it’s like, it’s not like it’s discounting anything that I’ll go through the rest of my career or whatever. But surviving that, I just kept coming back for more every day and like, knowing that I can OK, if I can do that, then I can handle getting beat up a little bit for a couple weeks in Triple-A. Perspective-wise, I was hitting a buck-fifty in short-A five years ago and thought I was going to get cut.
You made your debut last year. You were clearly part of the plan going forward and then you get hurt. The Padres brought you to Petco for a postseason series to throw and get on the introduction line, but you weren’t able to be on the roster. What was that like?
A: It was the best worst-case scenario you could ever dream of. Because you get to be here and you are in the clubhouse and part of the team, but you’re not. I was wearing tennis shoes. No matter what, there’s nothing I was going to be able to do to impact any of those games besides bringing a good attitude and being able to cheer on the boys. But yeah, extremely tough. As a competitor, you want to be out there so bad. So you work your whole life for and to see it play out in front of you in person, to know that I’m wearing basketball shoes and the rest these guys are wearing cleats. That’s brutal … but, you know what, it makes for a sweeter culmination. A great experience, obviously. When we do get back there and I do get to be a part of it and have an impact on the game, it’ll be that much cooler.
You were again part of the plan in spring training when you came down with the foot injury. How lonely is the complex when big-league camp breaks with you still in Arizona?
A: I mean, hey, man, it’s like anything else. If you’re not here, it’s like you always want to be here no matter what, even if you’re playing somewhere else. And obviously, rehab, the process, is tough mentally, but it’s only as tough as you make it. You can still get what you can out of it every day. We had a really good group. Me and Wally (Matt Waldron) and Bryan Hoeing and Jhony Brito were down there for the majority of the time. We didn’t have a big heart-to-heart with each other, but like mutually agreed upon, hey, we’re going to get after it every day and get what we can out of each day. If you can only do side-lying crunches, like when Wally had his oblique or if I can only do toe raises, we’re going crush whatever we have in front of us and then go about the rest of our day. So I got a lot out of it. Somehow I thought I couldn’t appreciate this anymore after last year, but it definitely added a little bit more going forward.
So obviously pitchers don’t hit anymore. But do you think you’d be able to hit if the Padres asked?
A: Ha. Maybe in the 17th inning if we have a fight and half the team gets ejected. Maybe I’ll throw my name in the hat. Until then, I’m going to let all of our future Hall-of-Famers handle that one.
