It was a Grapefruit League campaign to forget for both Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia.
Maybe not so much for Mejia as it was for Familia, although Mejia struggled with consistency and command over his last three outings. He allowed four runs and four hits with four walks and three strikeouts in that span, a disappointing end to the exhibition season for the Mets closer.
Still, Terry Collins was concerned enough to speak with the two right-handers this week about their performances.
“I told them, it’s the end of spring training. It’s time to get ready for Monday,” Collins told Mike Puma of the New York Post.” I told them the other day: ‘I don’t care about spring training, except now it’s time. The day you are asked to pitch, you have to get ready for it, because you just can’t turn this on or turn it off.”
Terry Collins said he isn’t worried about either Mejia or Familia just yet, although Mejia did express concern about his recent performances.
“I worry about it,” Mejia told Puma. “Spring training, I know you have to get yourself ready, but you’ve got to pitch real good anywhere.”
Mejia finished spring training with a 5.19 ERA in nine appearance, allowing five runs on 11 hits with four walks and six strikeouts in only 8 2/3 innings.
“If you do something wrong you have to worry, because that is my job. I have to care about my job,” Mejia said.
Mejia just struggled to throw strikes at the end of camp. He was mostly fine before he hit this wall. It happens during spring training, especially for closer-type pitchers who ride adrenaline highs and thrive off situations when the stakes are high. The good news for Mejia is the velocity and stuff are both there – he just needs to command it better beginning tomorrow.
The same can’t be said necessarily for Familia, who struggled from the outset in camp. He clearly struggled to achieve maximimum velocity, but also seemed to struggle with his delivery and arm slot.
Still, Familia doesn’t seem concerned about his struggles in spring training, despite allowing six earned runs on 16 hits with four walks in 9 2/3 innings this spring.
“I know I can do a good job,” Familia said. “I can get hitters out and we’ll see what happens.”
Dan Warthen told Puma the club asked Familia to tone things down early in spring training because in order to preserve himself for the regular season.
“Early on in the spring we wanted [Familia] to take it easy, because we thought he was a little tired last year,” Warthen said.
Ultimately, it’s spring training, but I was most concerned with Familia this spring. Not so much because of his velocity but because of the delivery he was using. It looked like he was pushing the ball and not using the lower half of his body most of the time. I worry because that can lead to an injury in the upper part of his body, something the team does not need from perhaps the most dynamic pitcher in their bullpen.
But, as Familia said, we will see what happens when it counts tomorrow and there are wins on the line. He’s clearly still healthy, and that’s the most important thing to take from camp.
Just Mets 