New York Mets: Is This Just a Bump in the Road for Jeurys Familia?
The New York Mets closer has blown his past two save opportunities after converting his previous 52 chances. Is this just a hiccup in what will be a fantastic season for Jeurys Familia, or do these struggles signal a real concern?
Jeurys Familia has been one of the best closers in baseball for the past two seasons. He went on an incredible run of converting 52 straight save chances while making his first All-Star team this year. He’s also a typical dominant back-of-the-bullpen pitcher in that he throws hard and is capable of racking up swings and misses at a high rate. However, he’s run into a bit of trouble in his past two outings.
In his first blown save of the season a couple of nights ago, he allowed a walk and two doubles to Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong en route to giving up the one-run lead.
On Thursday night against the Colorado Rockies, he allowed the bases to get loaded with nobody out and only winning by a run. Even most dominant closers probably wouldn’t be able to keep from blowing a save in that situation. An error by James Loney and a wild pitch from Familia surrendered the lead and ultimately cost the New York Mets the ballgame.
His final line for the past two nights has been 1.1 innings pitched, four walks, four earned runs and two strikeouts. The four free passes is probably the most concerning part of his two most recent outings. He’s allowed just over four walks per nine innings this season, which one would not expect with the type of results he’s had so far.
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Even though Familia has been outstanding in save situations, he has regressed with his peripheral stats from last year. His ERA is currently above 3.00 and the 26-year-old went from 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings to 9.1 K/9 so far this year. He has let up about two more walks per nine innings as well. His WHIP and and number of hits per appearance have risen too. This isn’t to say that his two consecutive blown saves are a big deal, but he hasn’t been pitching as well as the number of saves he’s collected has indicated.
According to Fangraphs, his fastball velocity, while still elite, has dropped from 97 to 96 mph. But there are some areas where Familia has been better this season. He’s allowing less hard contact and hitters are pulling the ball less. He also has a better FIP at the moment than he finished 2015 with. He’s also has been more of a contact pitcher as he has improved his ground ball rate from 58 to 63 percent. These numbers should be encouraging to Mets fans as it shows that Familia has continued to grow as a pitcher.
Familia is not on the level of closers such as Andrew Miller, Zach Britton or Wade Davis, but he still should be considered an elite closer based on the dominant stuff that he possesses and his production over the past two seasons. The save numbers are a bit misleading and his blown saves should be a bit concerning, but it should mostly be chalked up to fatigue and the fact that he was bound to blow a few saves because of the incredible streak that he was on.
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Terry Collins should expect his closer to continue to convert in the ninth inning at a high rate for the rest of the season as he has the production and stuff to bounce back from this rough patch.
Where does Familia rank among closers in MLB? Let us known in the comments below.