Should Mets Trade Jeurys Familia This Winter?
In order to bolster the back end of their bullpen for 2019, the Mets re-signed Jeurys Familia to a three-year contract last winter.
Familia, 30, was shipped off prior to the trade deadline in 2018 to the Oakland Athletics as the Mets looked to sell off players with expiring contracts.
However, the team re-signed Familia and had hoped to replenish their bullpen and give them a setup man for recently acquired Edwin Diaz.
It didn’t exactly work out on either front, as both Familia and Diaz had dismal years and were removed from high leverage situations towards the end of the campaign.
The reality of the situation is though, that the Mets still have two years and roughly $20 million left on Familia’s deal.
They could choose to dump Familia’s salary to a team that could try and use him as a reclamation project and go the external route by bringing in someone via free agency with some money freed up.
Or they could choose to keep him and hope he turns it around. Is there a chance of that happening? Well, it’s hard to tell.
In 2018. Familia had a barrel rate of 3.2 percent which is in the upper four percent of the league. That nearly doubled in 2019 to six percent.
Familia’s exit velocity was more or less in line with his career numbers, but the launch angle against Familia has gotten alarmingly high in the last two seasons. It spiked to 9.9 in 2018 and remained high at 8.1 in 2019.
Familia’s xSLG, wOBA and hard hit rate have also all inflated the last couple seasons. However, the big problem Familia dealt with in 2019 was his walk rate, which ballooned to 15.3 percent in 2019, a career high that was in the bottom two percent of the league.
The right-hander’s fastball velocity in 2019 was still high, ranking in the 87th percentile, while his exit velocity, xSLG and hard hit rate were all solid. However, his fastball spin rate was mediocre.
Familia did deal with injury in 2019, which could have contributed to his rough season, as could have the new baseballs.
The bottom line is, New York has a decision to make on Familia. If they keep him, they are at risk of him sinking further into the pits. However, if they trade him, they could use that money elsewhere to bring in some other external arms.
What are your thoughts on Familia? Do you keep him or trade him?