Jeurys Familia has spent parts of ten seasons with the Mets, making up the vast majority of his career thus far. The only time he spent with another organization was when they traded him to Oakland prior to the deadline in 2018, but he re-signed with the Mets on a three-year deal in the following offseason. With that deal now completed, Familia has returned to free agency, and the Mets have interest in re-signing him yet again. Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that, prior to the lockout, the Mets had “maintained contact with the right-hander’s camp.”
The Mets were one of the busiest teams prior to the lockout, handing out contracts to Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, bolstering their rotation and their lineup, and vaulting their 2022 Opening Day payroll up above $263MM. But one area of the team that has yet to be addressed is the bullpen.
The team’s relievers performed adequately in 2021, coming in 9th in MLB in ERA, 10th in fWAR, 6th in strikeout rate and 13th in walk rate. However, the bullpen lost one of its most productive members, Aaron Loup, who parlayed an incredible 0.95 ERA in 2021 into a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels.
Familia, now 32, also had a good year for the Mets, throwing 59 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.94, with an excellent strikeout rate of 27.5%. His walk rate of 10.3% was a bit higher than the league average of 8.7%, but it was still a marked improvement for Familia, as he had been above 15% in each of the previous two seasons.
Bring back Jeurys like the Torettos it’s all about familia
Omg… Why would they do this? They didn’t realize it was a mistake the first time they paid this guy? Wasn’t this a BVW signing that only happened because Familia was his former client?
2022 just started and we already have a big time whoosh
Mets gonna Mets…
The Mets are pursuing bullpen depth and yet the unoriginal haters still post ‘omg Mets gonna Mets!’. Get a new hobby.
I see you have found a hobby in criticizing other people’s comments. Nice
What you wrote barely qualifies as a comment. More like a childish taunt. And dreadfully unoriginal as well, but carry on.
Agreed. He will not get the same kind of deal Brodie gave him, but they need the arms. I could see them re-signing a couple of the relievers they picked up off waivers late in the season like Heath Hembree and Brad Hand. I still think that, if any changes to the rules with the CBA allow it, it might be a good move for JD Davis to become a two-way player. He was a closer in college and had a few relief appearances with the Astros.
Familia has been an easy target in recent years, but he was solid in 2021 and I think he performed better than his numbers. He gives up a lot of weak contact and the Mets infield defense hasn’t typically been good.
He would only be a 6/7th inning guy at this point If he’s willing to get paid like that on a one year with an option then why not?
Club option that is
An apostrophe and an accidental translation make this not an infraction
Once Familia, always familia! Bring back the Familia!
Please, no. Last season he always seemed prime to give up the big hit in the late innings.
Like Conforto it’s time to move on from this guy as well. Better for all sides involved.
Please no. I’m so ready for him to be gone
Familia is good to eat up some late innings! #LFGM
Agreed. Anything before the 7th inning and he’s fine. Not worth the $10M he had received prior, but could see him getting $3-4M per for 2 years.
Familia Has Been a Good Met More Often Than Not & Eats multiple Innings
Id rather them sign anyone else for the minimum over Familia. Walks too many guys and his sinker has become mediocre at best. He really was never that good, he used to be good at getting guys into double plays whenever he was in trouble. Hope he goes somewhere else
I agree. Puts way to my runners on base. It’s just time to move on. Would rather see them pursue someone like Andrew Chafin
Signing Familia doesn’t exclude Chaffin. Two totally different signings. Chaffin is a sought after asset, Familia would just be filler.
I get that, but I just feel like why waste the money when there’s better options you can pursue?
Depths
Yea, it just depends on how cheaply you could get Familia. The Mets have been throwing some seriously sub-replacement level relievers out there lately it seems so 1-3 million on Fam mightn’t be that bad.
I misread contact as contract in the headline. Before the lockout, I’m sure the Mets, like every team, was in contact with dozens of FAs. I’m sure the Dodgers are in contact with Kershaw. The Tigers are in contact with Boyd. The Phillies are in contact with Bradley. None of it means anything until they sign the dotted line.
Break the addiction.
Of course they did. Mets just can’t let this man go
I hope the contact was only to ask him where he wants the items he left behind in hIs locker should be sent.
My thoughts exactly!
Familia needs a no-stress no expectations situation to pitch in. Maybe Baltimore can sign him for the veteran’s minimum.
Is stress really his issue? I think he’s just lost it. Too many years on his arm.
Partly agree. I noticed the first signs of his regression in a nationally televised game against the Nats a few years ago. The Nats spent the 9th inning of the first game of that series laying off of his low-dipping pitches. The pitches kept going out of the strikezone. Familia was then forced to go into the strikezone, which the quality of the pitches weren’t the same, so they teed off and won that first game. They did that moving forward and then other teams started doing it. He started struggling since.
What I see happened to him was kind of like what happened to Dontrelle Willis. Early in their careers, they were able to deceive hitters into chasing pitches that they had virtually no chance of hitting or making good contact on, but those pitches always finished out of the strikezone. When guys figured them out, and stopped swinging, Willis and Famia’s careers went downhill from there because when they located those same pitches into the strikezone, they didn’t have the same stuff on them. It happens to a lot of guys that looked like they were All-world early in their pitching careers. That’s what makes the great ones special – ability to be great for entire careers, even with hitters adjusting.
If they insist on signing him again, I hope they do it for much less than the $10m/year that they overpaid last time. Especially since Loup got less than that, which the Mets really should have matched or beat.
If they sign him for ten million, or anywhere close, they should be forced to jump onto a cactus, ala Werner Herzog.
Over three years, maybe, but I couldn’t see that happening. I could see 1/$3M happening, but his agent probably thinks he’s worth more than that.
Please no, get rid of this guy. He starts every hitter 2-0 and can’t throw a strike. He’s buckles under pressure. His numbers are mostly in garbage time.
Eh, whatever. It’ll probably only be a one year deal with a club option for the second.