Mets' Musical Closers May Continue This Week Against The Yankees
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It seems like the Mets are determined to exhaust every possible option on their roster to find a closer.
Jeurys Familia may be the next in line.
Familia impressed manager Terry Collins on Sunday, throwing 1 2/3 hitless innings after the Mets had rallied for three runs in the ninth to tie the Philadelphia Phillies. New York eventually won 5-4 in the bottom of the 11th on Ruben Tejada's single.
Familia, a 23-year-old right-hander, has allowed no runs and just one hit over his last 4 1/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.12.
Just how close Familia is to getting the job depends on what general manager Sandy Alderson thinks, since he's the one with say over personnel, the NY Post reported.
Collins and Alderson reportedly met after Sunday's win, but offered no revelations about the closer's role heading into the opening act of the latest installment of the Subway Series. The GM didn't offer any revelations Monday afternoon.
"Who's our closer? Good question," Alderson said. "But it's not (Jenrry) Mejía. We don't have a guy we can count on in the ninth inning and that colors everything."
The Mets, who swept the four-game set last season, will play at Yankee Stadium on Monday and Tuesday and host the Bombers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Since Bobby Parnell went down with an elbow injury on opening day, the Mets have officially named Jose Valverde and Kyle Farnsworth as closer, but tried to end games with others, including Carlos Torres and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Overall this season, the Mets have six saves and eight blown saves.
As for Mejia, as Alderson alluded to Monday, he's trending downward as a potential candidate. The 24-year-old right-hander started off the season brilliantly, but hasn't been effective of late. He's had a trend of starting strong and then faltering midway through his outings. Despite being 3-0, his ERA has ballooned to 5.06 following three consecutive subpar starts. In seven starts he's struck out 38 and walked 20 in 37 1/3 innings.
The Mets have lost five of their last six overall and sit 4 games out in the NL East.
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