Mets closer Jeurys Familia has emerged as a top closer in baseball today, virtually out of nowhere thanks to the injury and suspension to Jenrry Mejia.
In Mejia’s absence, Familia has notched 11 saves, the most in the league. He also leads all of baseball with 14 games finished, and has 19 strikeouts with only three walks allowed in 15 innings.
Familia has appeared in 15 of the team’s first 28 games, pacing him for 86 appearances in 2015.
Despite that heavy workload, neither Familia or Terry Collins are worried about overuse, writes Mike Puma of the New York Post.
“T.C. knows when we need a day, when we feel tired,” Familia explained to Puma. “He knows what he is doing. He is a smart manager, and when somebody needs a day just tell T.C., and that is it.”
On Wednesday with the Mets leading 5-1 over the Orioles in the ninth inning, Collins called upon Familia to get the final two outs of the game. The four run lead without the tying run on deck is not a save situation.
“There was a guy on first and one thing I didn’t want to do was get into a situation where here came [Chris] Davis,” Collins said. “I don’t think in the first week of May you can say you are worried about overuse.”
On the surface, Collins makes sense, and yes they know their situations better than any single outside observer. Nevertheless, heavy use today can lead to injury and ineffectiveness tomorrow, something the Mets simply cannot afford to have happen with their new star closer.
With the comfortable lead in the ninth inning, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to get Familia two consecutive days off with Thursday’s off-day and preserving his fuel for a more meaningful spot for him. Collins’ desire to win is most certainly understandable, and if Familia’s usage wasn’t so heavy early on, perhaps this wouldn’t be in question.
But Familia’s usage is quite heavy. If this team has eyes on October, it’s important to pick and choose spots for people, especially if they’ve been already heavily taxed.
Just Mets 