New York Mets: Four goals for the bullpen to achieve in 2021

Milk anything out of Jeurys Familia that they can

The first two years of Jeurys Familia’s return haven’t paid for themselves. In 2019, he was a disaster. The 2020 season was better but not nearly good enough to give me confidence in him for the coming year.

Familia’s 2021 campaign will be the final on his contract with the Mets. This year, the club needs to milk whatever they can from him.

Clearly, Familia won’t work as the primary setup man as originally planned when the club brought him back. He also is well down the depth chart as a closer option. My guess is he’ll start the season as someone we see appear in games when the Mets are trailing.

This doesn’t mean his roster spot is completely useless. Arms like this are needed on every ball club. At the very least, the Mets need to get some innings from Familia to at least give them an opportunity for a comeback. Heck, let’s settle for allowing him to pitch long enough to provide others with a day of rest.

Expectations for Familia shouldn’t be this low yet they are. This is what happens when we lose faith in a pitcher because of how often he has crumbled.

We don’t need much out of Familia this year other than competency. He doesn’t need to thrill us or even exceed our lowest of expectations. All we need is for Familia to give the Mets any quality whatsoever.

Perhaps his best contribution will be his presence in a trade? One can dream.

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Which of these or other goals would you most like to see the Mets bullpen achieve in 2021?