Mets: Three Jeurys Familia predictions for the 2020 season

Will Jeurys Familia have a better year for the New York Mets in 2020? Our predictions tell the story of what we can all expect.

What does Jeurys Familia have in store for the New York Mets and their fans in 2020? The veteran reliever was at one point a dominant yet untrustworthy closer for the team during their consecutive playoff runs in 2015 and 2016.

For the most part, his notorious outings came in those playoff runs. He hasn’t been nearly the same pitcher since, settling in with the club as a setup man last year rather than the closer.

Familia won’t work his way back to closing again anytime soon—at least nobody seems to think so. He’s coming off a horrific season featuring a 5.70 ERA and more than six walks per nine. Is he going to rebound? Let’s make some predictions.

Familia is bad, but not 2019 bad

It’s going to be another ugly year for Familia in 2020, but not the same conventional kind of ugly it was in 2019. He’s going to remove his glasses, let down his hair, and change out of that dirty smock. His numbers will look better. Even then, there won’t be any chance he can hide behind the ugly lack of control he has on his pitches.

Familia has almost always finished the year with a high walk total. Even in 2016 when he led the league with 51 saves the man averaged 3.6 per nine frames.

Free passes will be his downfall once again this year with an average of around five per every nine innings he tosses.

Fortunately, home runs will be closer to normal this year with Major League Baseball stepping in and changing the baseballs—a whole separate prediction I have. Familia wasn’t exactly killed by dingers in 2019, but he did see his totals climb up much higher than his career average.

I predict we see Familia’s ERA somewhere in the mid-4.00s. Let’s call it even and say he pitches 50 innings and allows 25 earned runs in 2020.