Updated by Joe D.
Jeurys Familia made his first rehab appearance for Advanced-A St. Lucie this morning, marking the right-hander’s first game action since undergoing surgery on June 5 to clean out his right elbow.
According to Adam Rubin, Familia tossed one scoreless inning of relief, allowing a single a walk and striking out one.
With the St. Lucie Mets now completing their regular season, it will be interesting to see if the Mets opt to let Familia move onto Double-A Binghamton who still have another week of regular season play and then the postseason.
The 23-year old power righty is officially slated to be reliever and should be ready to compete for a bullpen spot next Spring.
Sandy Alderson will have plenty of solid in-house options to build his bullpen for the ’14 season after three straight Winters of overhauls and revamps.
I love all the potential and upside the Mets’ pen will have next season, packed with plenty of hard-throwers and effective specialists.
Original Post
Jeurys Familia underwent a surgery to clean up loose bodies in his right elbow on June 5th — and yet finds himself close to game action and a rehab assignment right now. Familia tossed a 30-pitch bullpen session yesterday, and the team is looking to get him in some game action on Monday. There are two problems with that, however — the first of them being that the GCL and St. Lucie minor league teams will both have their seasons ended by Monday. Secondly, Rehab Coordinator Jon Debus has a serious artery blockage and requires medical attention. We at MMO wish Jon a safe and speedy recovery.
Anyway, according to Adam Rubin, the Mets plan to patch-work together a game at their complex in Port St. Lucie for Familia, who is expected to return to MLB game action later this month. I like this news, because I want to see if Familia is still popping the glove with his fastball and demonstrating that closer potential I always saw in him.
On the topic of the bullpen, Vic Black will be added to the team tomorrow as a September call-up, but the Mets organization will wait till their teams finish the Minor League playoffs before calling anybody up (also via Adam Rubin). Since both the Las Vegas 51s and the Binghamton Mets are playoff bound, it could be a little while before we see some new faces. Ruben Tejada, Mike Baxter, Francisco Pena, Juan Centeno, and Jeff Walters are all potential names.
The idea is also being floated around that the Mets are going to cut Frank Francisco when he returns from his rehab assigment. Good riddance, eh? He pitched last night for Binghamton, but it feels like he’s been rehabbing his injury forever at this point.
