Mets Place Jeurys Familia On 10-Day DL

The Mets have placed closer Jeurys Familia on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the roster by right-hander Jacob Rhame.

Familia is said to be dealing with right shoulder soreness. There’s no further information available at this time as the underlying cause of the issue or the expected duration of his time on the DL.

Thus far in 2018, Familia has put a trying 2017 campaign in the rearview mirror. He’s carrying a 2.48 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 through 29 innings. Though Familia isn’t generating swinging strikes at quite his peak level (12.0% thus far), he is working in range of his career average in fastball velocity (96.7 mph).

For the Mets, they’ll be losing a closer who has been one of the few consistent positives on the field. It’s not clear how they’ll fill in for him in the 9th inning. A.J. Ramos has plenty of experience in that role, but he’s also been shelved with shoulder problems. Seth Lugo has been very effective, but he has been giving multiple innings. Perhaps Robert Gsellman or the recently-activated Anthony Swarzak will be seen as candidates, or the club may utilize a committee approach.

There is at least some more promising injury news to pass along from New York. The club also announced that star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes will embark upon a rehab assignment beginning today. It’s not known just how long he’ll need, but presumably he’s not too far off from returning to the majors from a hip ailment.