Familia quickly adapts to closer job
Mets are thrilled to see pitcher dominate batters
Last spring, when he had not yet entrenched himself in the New York Mets’ record book and before he had made an All- Star appearance, Jeurys Familia was a setup man with one strong season to his name.
His friend, Jenrry Mejia, was the team’s closer and had not yet spiraled out of baseball. But Rafael Landestoy, an international coordinator for the Mets, could sense Mejia was struggling. He warned Familia to be ready. He was the next in line after all.
“If anything can happen,” Landestoy told him. “You’re probably going to be the man.”
Those words have proved prophetic. During the first week of the 2015 season, Mejia went on the disabled list with a balky elbow and then was suspended after testing positive for steroids. With a vacuum in the ninth inning, Familia stepped into the job.
That is how one of the best closers in baseball assumed the job. It was a flukish set of circumstances that has earned dividends for the club and the pitcher. Familia has become a dominant arm at the end of games; his 42 saves are four more than any other reliever — this after tying the Mets team record with 43 saves last season.
While the Mets have struggled this season after a World Series berth last year, their playoff hopes dimming and their sterling young rotation fracturing and fraying with every new injury, they have at least had certainty in the end. Armed with a 96 mph sinker, Familia is the closest thing the Mets have to certainty.
“Probably the hitters hate him every time they see him,” Landestoy said. “Because that sink is so hard.”
Familia’s fast- rising trajectory has surprised even him. He was at risk of a demotion to the minors at the start of 2014. Last year, he became a closer out of a crisis. This year, he has followed it up with an even stronger season. In 29 months, his career has been transformed.
“There are moments where I’m like ‘ Wow, I’ve been able to do so much in such a short time,’ ” he told USA TODAY Sports through an interpreter, “that I am a little surprised by how it’s all happened.”
While results came easily for Familia, it took him time to assert himself as a closer.
It is stark to hear Familia admit it. In many ways, he is the prototype for his role. On the mound, he is imposing at 6- 3, 240 pounds with a devastating fastball. But he acknowledges that he questioned himself initially.
“Last season there were moments when I doubted myself whether I could really do this or not,” he said. “There were some moments where I wasn’t sure of myself and my abilities.”
He adds, “I think that I was just, in my mind, thinking I haven’t been around the major leagues very long. That opportunity kind of came all of a sudden, kind of as a surprise. So I would get ahead of myself and start thinking, ‘ What happens if I lose tonight? If I don’t pitch well?’
“If you don’t do well, you lose it; if you do well, you win it. So I realized at one point that I needed to stop thinking ahead of the game and just wait until I was in that moment to understand that sometimes you do lose and that next day you move on from it.”
The ability to move on, to slough off one night’s failures for the next day is a trait he picked up from Mejia. Unlike voluble Mejia, Familia is less demonstrative on the mound. Even before they formed the back end of the Mets bullpen, they were good friends. And they remain friends, still talking every so often, though Familia hasn’t seen him this year. There is also a counter- balance to their careers. Familia’s transition to the ninth inning came after Mejia’s suspension.
But Familia does not think about their arcs in that way. He sees a teammate whose actions deserved consequences and received punishment.
“It actually hurt me very much when that happened with him because he’s a teammate but he’s ( also) someone I knew,” he said. “He was a friend. Then I thought to myself, ‘ I really can’t get attached to that and not take this opportunity and run with it myself. I need to do what I came here to do.’ ”
Instead, Familia has taken to the closer’s role with a mind- set that mirrors the one he holds in life: That control of his circumstances is not infinite, there is only what he does and the rest will unfurl as it does.
It is why Familia seemed undisturbed when earlier recounting the World Series — where he had three blown saves — and seems circumspect in explaining failure. He struggles to name a low moment commensurate with the high he felt last June when his first child, Jeurys Jr., was born. That son came while Familia was on the mound at Citi Field, closing another game before rushing off to the hospital.
Now Familia gushes when talking about his son — the only question he answered in English during a 21- minute conversation was about becoming a dad — and has started a program called Familia’s Family that brings in local foster children to the stadium six times a year. This for a son of a father who showed exceptional care for Familia when he was still a newly signed Met, peppering officials at the organization’s Dominican Academy with calls asking how he was adjusting and if he was behaving and improving.
“I only worry about what I can control, and I know I can throw strikes,” he said. “But once that ball actually leaves my hand, then I know that control is sort of gone and whatever is going to happen will happen.”
That’s why, when he blew his first save in nearly a year late last month after 52 consecutive conversions, he got on the phone with Landestoy and exhibited calmness. Landestoy called to check in on the closer, and Familia relayed that he was fine.
“It’s over,” Familia told him. “I’m going to start ( another) tomorrow.”