Jeurys Familia notched his 43rd save of the season on Sunday, matching Armando Benitez (who saved 43 in 2001} for the most saves in a single season in franchise history.
It’s been a remarkable season for Familia, who was unexpectedly thrust into the closer role after Jenrry Mejia was suspended for PED use in early April.
Familia finishes the season with a 1.85 ERA, 1.001 WHIP, .207 BAA and 86 strikeouts in 78.1 innings while walking 19.
“He was thrown into that closer’s role,” third baseman David Wright said. “And he never looked back.”
“He stepped up and did a tremendous job all year,” Mets manager Terry Collins added.
Enjoy the following article by Brian Mangan who does an exceptional job of chronicling just how special Familia has been this season.
— Joe D.
September 30 – Jeurys Familia is Very Good at Everything
It is no secret around the league now that Jeurys Familia is amazing. Familia posted a 2.21 ERA in 77.1 dominant innings last year (3.07 FIP) and has backed that up with an even more scintillating year this year, tallying a 1.88 ERA (2.79 FIP) and 42 resounding saves in 76.2 innings.
The league has taken notice since Familia was snubbed for the All Star Game in July; and since then he’s been even nastier to hitters. In early September, Familia added an absolutely unfair 95-mph splitter to his arsenal, complementing his 100-mph fastball and wipe-out slider.
Players around the league wilt at the idea of facing him. Media outlets everywhere have called him “unfair”. (For some good reading, here’s Eno Sarris at Fangraphs and Dan Weigel at Beyond the Box Score)
What might be most amazing about Familia, however, is the way he’s gotten these results. Despite the overpowering arsenal, Familia does not have anything about his performance that screams “elite.” Instead, Familia is just really, really good at everything across the board.
It’s pretty clear that Familia could strike out more batters if he wanted to, but right now, Familia is combining elite “stuff” with a willingness to pound the strike zone and get ground balls. Together, this makes him the most elite of the elite. Let’s take a look at how Familia stacks up in the National League.
Among NL relievers with at least 60 innings, Familia is 3rd in saves and 4th in ERA, behind only Ken Giles, Aroldis Chapman, and Hector Rondon.
His strikeout rate is very good, but not elite, ranking 8th in the NL (9.86 K/9). His walk rate is very good, but also not elite, ranking 9th in the NL (2.23 BB/9). His combination of high strikeouts and low walks together, however, conspire to make him 3rd in the NL in K-BB%, which is a much more important stat than K’s or BB’s alone.
Among plate discipline components, Familia again does very well in just about all of them. Familia gets swings out of the zone the 4th most in the NL. Batters only make contact on swings outside the zone 46.3% of the time, which is also 4th best in the NL. Familia also pounds the zone with strikes, ranking 10th in the NL in first pitch strikes. Finally, he sports a very strong swinging strike rate, getting batters to swing and miss the 4th most often in the NL at 16.0%.
Batters don’t do much with the ball when the put it in play against Familia either, hitting ground balls 58.2% of the time, the 9th most in the NL. He gets infield fly balls (this is a very good thing) the 10th most often, and he gets soft contact the 7th most often and hard contact the 9th best rate.
So as you can see, Familia lacks the one stand-out tool. He doesn’t strike out 41% of the batters to face him, like Chapman or Kenley Jansen do. He doesn’t get 72% ground balls like Brad Ziegler. He doesn’t avoid the walk like Mark Melancon, who allows only 1.69 BB/9.
But what he does do — and people who have watched him all season can attest to this — is everything really well. Familia has been a godsend for the Mets this year. He’s a hard-throwing, strike-throwing, strikeout, ground ball and pop-up pitcher with incredible mound presence who has a three pitch arsenal and who can dominate both righties and lefties. There isn’t much more that you could ask for.
