15 worst free agent signings in Mets history

8) NY Mets worst free agent signing: Jeurys Familia

A worse free agent signing than Bonilla? Yep. There are eight more.

The Jeurys Familia reunion prior to 2019 is one of them. His initial run with the Mets was good with the 2015 and 2016 regular seasons standing out as two of the best ever by a Mets closer. After he was traded in mid-2018, fans were able to say goodbye and move onto the next phase of the franchise. When they traded for Edwin Diaz, it looked like that was exactly what the team had planned.

Then the winter meetings came and the Mets brought Familia back to become a setup man. His first year was a miserable one, pitching to a 5.70 ERA. He was better in the next two seasons, having ERAs of 3.71 and 3.94.

What made this such a bad deal was how much money he got to eventually fall into nothing more than an untrustworthy veteran in the bullpen. The three-year contract gave him $6.66 million in 2019 and $11.66 million in each of the following two seasons. He was getting closer money without actually closing.

At the time, fans weren’t too pleased but understood the rationale. Maybe Familia could be better in the eighth inning.

In hindsight, it’s one of the worst free agent deals the Mets made.