Once upon a time, Jeurys Familia was viewed as a starting pitcher.
That was the vision as late as 2012 when Familia was in Triple-A Buffalo. He was coming off a solid season in 2011 as a starting pitcher between Single-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton,c combining to go 5-5 with a 2.0 ERA in 23 starts. However, 2012 didn’t go too swimmingly for Familia – he went 9-9 with a 4.73 ERA in 28 starts, walking 73 batters while striking out 128 in only 137 innings.
The Mets gave Familia a cup of coffee in late 2012 in the Mets bullpen, which got the Mets thinking about him as a reliever going forward. He made the team out of camp in the Mets bullpen, but almost immediately suffered from bone chips in his right elbow, causing him to miss most of that season.
But that didn’t change the Mets plans to convert him to a full-time reliever. And that decision paid off for them as he developed into one of the most elite setup men in the league in 2014 and helping to shorten the game for the Mets in their bullpen.
Coming into the season, the plan was for him to be the team’s setup man to Jenrry Mejia, although there was unquestionably a belief he had closer-type stuff and could eventually close with his hard fastball and devastating slider.
That became a reality instantly when Mejia was lost to the disabled list and an 80-game PED suspension in the first week of the season.
And neither the Mets or Familia have missed a beat.
Familia has not only filled in for Mejia, he has become one of the best closers in the game. He notched his 15th save on Sunday, getting five outs to help salvage the final game of a three-game series against the Marlins at Citi Field.
The first batter Familia had to face in the eighth inning was Giancarlo Stanton. He came up with the tying run already on-base.
“I just thought, I’m going to put power against power and see what happens,” Terry Collins explained.
It was a quick and seemingly easy battle for Familia: three pitches, and a strikeout.
“I just like to be in the game,” Familia said of the sequence to Stanton. “I don’t care who’s going to hit. I just want to do my job.”
It was Familia’s second five-out save of the season. He lowered his ERA to 1.44 with his 1 2/3 innings of dominance on Sunday. He has 30 strikeouts in 25 innings so far in 2015.
“He comes in and gets a five-out save right there, that’s so big,” Anthony Recker said. Especially with the heart of the order coming up when he comes in.”
“I had three days off. I had a lot of rest. I could do it,” Familia said of his readiness for the task.
He has the tenth best ERA among qualified relievers in the National League. He’s tied with Trevor Rosenthal and Santiago Casilla for second among National League relievers with 15 saves, and he has the fourth most strikeouts among qualified relievers in the league as well.
That’s elite, and certainly All-Star caliber. Pretty impressive for the once-upon-a-time starting pitcher at Triple-A Buffalo, and the guy who was supposed to setup a guy who has yet to pitch in 2015.
What’s scary is he’s getting better, even more confident, and his stuff is getting filthier seemingly with every save.
“I’m telling you, it’s incredible,” Collins said. “The adjustments he has made both mentally and physically. He now thinks he’s the closer here, which he is.”
There’s no question about the latter now.
Just Mets 