A report by Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports, says that the Mets front office was split on whether they should bring back reliever Jeurys Familia in the offseason, and a source confirmed that there was no universal support for the former Mets closer.

However, needing to bolster a bullpen that floundered in 2018 and ranked in the bottom five in Batting Average Against, FIP and ERA, newly tapped general manager Brodie Van Wagenen struck early and signed Familia to a three-year, $30 million dollar deal last December.

So far, Familia has been a unmitigated disaster, having already blown four saves while posting career-worst marks  with a 7.50 ERA, 5.73 FIP and a 1.833 WHIP over 32 appearances, most of them in low-leverage situations.

I took a look at some of the deeper pitching metrics which really point out some troubling trends for the former All Star closer. I compared Familia’s metrics from his most dominant seasons from 2014 to 2016 to this year’s version.

What jumps out at you immediately is the groundball rate on his signature pitch, that one-time nasty sinker.

When Familia was one of the game’s most dominant relievers, he boasted an impressive 13.55 groundball rate, but now that’s down to 8.79 – a decrease of almost five percentage points.

Also taking a big hit was Familia’s whiff/swing rate which dropped from 24.57 percent to 18.60 percent.

Sit down, this next one might make you a little squeamish. His BAA (batting average against) and his SLG (slugging percentage against) has skyrocketed from .221 and .314, to a BAA of .340 and a SLG of .540. Yikes.

And remember that splitter he added to his arsenal in 2016? That once lethal offering is getting teed off on to the tune of a .364 BAA and .636 SLG.

The first thing you want to know when you look at these results is, what’s wrong with Familia and has he lost his velocity or execution?

But when reporters asked manager Mickey Callaway about it last week, he responded, “The stuff is still there.”

A quick look at his pitch metrics – courtesy of Brooks Baseball – shows just a little decline in velocity across the board, he’s only lost a couple of MPH on his fastballs.

However, the vertical movement (pfx VMov) on his sinker is way down from 5.5 inches to 2.96 inches and you never want to see that for a sinker ball pitcher like Jeurys. It’s that wide vertical movement that made Familia’s two-seamer so deceptive and a nasty swing-and-a-miss pitch.

In other words, sorry Mickey, his stuff is NOT still there.

So now what?

Unfortunately, with two more years and $20 million dollars left on his contract, the decision by Van Wagenen to bring back  Familia could still haunt the team even if they look past this season and to future seasons.

Is there a chance that Familia could return to his once dominant form?

Probably not because this decline began three seasons ago, which really makes you wonder how he landed a three-year deal in the first  place.

At this point if the Mets could get him to at least become a serviceable arm in their beleaguered bullpen, they’ll take it.

But make no mistake, Brodie Van Wagenen has some explaining to do on Friday, when he’s expected to face the media after weeks of dodging the big questions.

Brodie showed up to the Winter Meetings like a brash-talking gunslinger at the OK Corral.

But he was too quick on the draw and made a potentially disastrous deal for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz. And then followed that up by signing Familia for three years when there were still a dozen top shelf relievers on the market.

Our agent-turned-GM needs to tread carefully at the trade deadline or he could wind up at Boot Hill in Tombstone. He’ll be entrusted to move some signature pieces for the Mets and try to fortify a minor league system he decimated when he dealt a pair of 2019 All Star Futures – Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Sigh…