A Familia Reunion
Closer's Mets return Thursday
The Mets’ beleaguered bullpen came into Wednesday having suffered the most losses in the majors. But Thursday they are scheduled to get closer Jeurys Familia back after a 15-game suspension for a domestic violence incident.
“I can’t wait to be back with my teammates,” Familia told pressconnects.com after Monday’s final minor league rehab outing in Binghamton. “Two weeks for me has been a lot of time. I’m missing my team. Definitely, in two or three days, I’ll be back with my team and do what I can do for wins.”
Familia has helped the Mets to plenty of wins, notching an NL-leading 51 saves last season before getting arrested for a Halloween night incident at his Fort Lee, N.J., home. His wife, Bianca Rivas, didn’t press charges.
“Nothing I can do,” Familia said. “Everything happened for a reason. … Everybody knows what happened.”
Everyone also knows how his absence has hamstrung the Mets. Even Wednesday’s 5-4 win to snap a four-game skid came with bullpen drama. Robert Gsellman became the first Met starter to pitch into the eighth this year, but Jerry Blevins suffered his second blown save of the season. And Addison Reed — who has been the closer in Familia’s absence — pitched for a second straight day and allowed a run in the ninth, but managed his fourth save.
“[Familia is] dominant. I’d say he’s one of the top three relievers in all of baseball. Any time you get an arm like that it’s huge,’’ Reed said. “We held our own without him, but it’s going to be huge to get him back and he’ll be ready to go.”
It remains to be seen how the Citi Field crowd will receive Familia. He was largely cheered during spring training, and reaction could be mostly positive again, but it bears watching — as does his impact.
“Oh, it’s huge,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “To get him back is so big for us, not only at the tail end of the game when you know you’ve got the 100-mph sinker coming in, but just that personality out there on the mound who wants that baseball. It’s definitely huge when he comes back.
“Definitely he makes such a big impact on this clubhouse. He keeps everybody loose, and when he’s out there in the ninth inning there’s no one we’d rather have.”
The bullpen’s five losses were tied for the most in the majors entering Wednesday.
“Outside of what happened in Miami it has been fine. We thought Fernando [Salas], Jerry and Addison could pitch the back end of the games, and they’ve done it successfully. They had a bad week,’’ Terry Collins said with a shrug. “But getting back one of the best closers in baseball is going to certainly help out immensely.”
With Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler all coming off surgery, the Mets have had to baby them and tax the bullpen. The long games and cold weather have compounded the problem they hope Familia will help solve.
“For the most part they’ve done a good job. But we’re going to add a pretty nice piece,’’ said Collins, still debating with pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Ricky Bones if he will slot Familia back in the closer’s role immediately or bring him back gradually.