Jeurys Familia, RHP
Player Data: Age: 31, B/T: R/R
Primary Stats: 25 G, 26.2 IP, 2-0, 3.71 ERA, 5 HLD, 2 HR, 19 BB, 23 SO, 1.463 WHIP
Advanced Stats: 115 ERA+, 4.92 FIP, 0.5 bWAR. -0.1 fWAR
Free Agent: 2022
2020 Salary: $11.67 M
Grade: C+
2020 Review
After signing a three-year, $30 million deal to return in free agency, Jeurys Familia was expected to be a lockdown reliever for the Mets in 2019. Unfortunately he turned in the worst season of his career, compiling a 5.71 ERA across 60 innings pitched.
A year ago, I gave Familia an F on his report card grade for 2019 season, while pinning the Mets failure to reach the postseason squarely on his shoulders (along with Edwin Diaz). To his credit, Familia went into the offseason with something to prove and lost a significant amount of weight to refine his body and mechanics to perform in 2020.
During the second game of the season, Familia pitched a scoreless seventh inning with the Mets leading 2-1 against the Atlanta Braves. Diaz ended up blowing a save in that contest, yielding a home run to Marcell Ozuna in the bottom of the ninth inning, before the Mets lost in extras.
Familia’s second appearance brought the skepticism for 2019 to the surface, when he allowed two runs against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Familia went on to have four-straight appearances without allowing run, but once again ran into trouble on August 8th.
Playing against the Miami Marlins, Familia could not find the strike zone. While he did induce a double play to somewhat mitigate the damage, Familia gave up single and walked three before Drew Smith had to came into the game to bail him out of the jam.
Walks plagued the right-hander all season, as he walked 10 batters in 11 innings pitched in August. His ERA for the month was 4.09.
Familia seemed to round into form a bit in September, as he pitched to a solid 3.00 ERA over his final 12 innings pitched.
Compared to the disaster that was his 2019 season, Familia made great improvements this year. Still, he has become an arm out of the bullpen that you simply cannot trust in high leverage situations due to his inability to find the strike zone.
2021 Outlook
Looking at his advanced metrics for the season, there are some things that Jeurys Familia does well that bring some promise for the future. His exit velocity against (85.9 mph), barrel percentage (4.0) and hard hit percentage (30.7) all rank in the 86th percentile or higher among other pitchers in the MLB.
Since he still throws hard and is generating great movement on his sinker and slider, Familia is hard to square up. The problem for the veteran is that he has lost his ability to put batters away and is still walking them at a high clip.
For the first time in his career, Familia’s strikeout percentage dipped below 20% (19.2 K%), while his walk rate was over 15% for the second year in a row. Unless the 31-year-old can start to put hitter’s away instead of putting them on base, he will struggle to live up to the $11.67 million the Mets are going to pay him next season.
