Mets' Jenrry Mejia gets yearlong suspension for second failed PED test
NEW YORK — Mets Opening Day closer Jenrry Mejia put the team in a bind back in April when he received an 80-game suspension for a performance-enhancing drug.
Not only would that ban keep him out of the bullpen for half a season — one that would endure other vacancies because of injuries to Josh Edgin in spring training and Jeremy Blevins later in April — but it also made Mejia ineligible for the postseason.
After Noah Syndergaard dominated the Padres 4-0 on Tuesday night, New York is just one game behind the Nationals in the division and 3 1/2 games behind the Giants for the second wild card, making the playoffs a concern in Citi Field’s front office for the first time in history; the organization’s last postseason appearance — 2006 — pre-dates their no-longer-new ballpark.
Mejia’s ineligibility for October was, in part, a reason to acquire star reliever Tyler Clippard from Oakland on Monday, to fill the eighth-inning void in front of new closer Jeurys Familia, should the Mets reach the playoffs.
Just as the deal was nearing completion, general manager Sandy Alderson learned that Mejia was being suspended a second time for the same substance, Stanozolol. Alderson told reporters he felt “a tremendous amount of disappointment, to some extent anger, to some extent amazement.”
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Manager Terry Collins called it a “bad, bad decision” and that the players were shaking their heads after learning that Mejia would now face a 162-game penalty, effective immediately.
“We just had a tremendous game, and I don’t need to get socked in the gut again tonight,” Collins said after the win. “First of all, I love Jenrry Mejia. I love him as a player. I love him as a person. (I am) extremely, extremely disappointed in what’s happened. This team’s had enough bad breaks and bad luck this year to last a long time.”
In his comments earlier Tuesday evening, Alderson called the timing of the Clippard trade “coincidental,” and for a franchise looking to play meaningful October baseball games, Alderson already needed the two-time All-Star reliever, Clippard. The 30-year-old right hander made his Mets debut on Tuesday and pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
While Clippard pitched the ninth of this four-run game, Familia has locked down the closer’s job with a 1.70 ERA and 27 saves in 31 chances.
“It is disappointing,” second baseman Daniel Murphy said of Mejia’s suspension, “but we’ve spent 80 games without him, so we’ve spent the majority of the season without him. We got to see Jeurys Familia grow right in front of our eyes. It was nice to see Clipp get out there today and get an inning in. We’ll keep plugging along and keep moving forward.”
Twice has Clippard been a closer — saving 17 games for Oakland this season and 32 for Washington back in 2012 — but primarily he has made a name for himself in the eighth inning. His 147 holds since the 2010 season are 20 more than any other big league reliever.
He may, in fact, be more valuable in the eighth inning. The way the math of lineup rotations and average numbers of base runners work out, an opponent’s heart of the order is more likely to bat in the eighth inning than the ninth. Indeed, Clippard the 2-3-4 lineup slots more than any other in his career and 20% more often than the 7-8-9 spots.
Clippard’s arsenal — a 93-mile-per-hour fastball, a plus change up and enough breaking balls to keep the hitter honest — has made him a neutral reliever, meaning he gets out both righties (.197 career average against) and lefties (.183 career average against).
Mejia’s suspension is, in theory, a blow because of his track record: 28 saves and more than a strikeout per inning last season. In the mere seven appearances he made between bans, he did not allow a run in 7 1/3 innings. He would have provided some helpful depth over the final two months of the regular season before he would have taken his required seat for the playoffs (which he will now have to do again next year, should the club make it then). His teammates repeatedly called his loss “tough” and “disappointing.”
“It’s a choice,” outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. “I don’t buy the ‘it’s a mistake’ thing.”
But the Mets compiled the majors’ sixth-best bullpen ERA largely without Mejia’s services this season. In addition to trading for Clippard, they recently welcomed back another former closer, Bobby Parnell, who had undergone Tommy John surgery.
“I still consider him a friend,” Parnell said. “I’ve played with him for a long time. Obviously he has some more personal stuff going on than you know about outside this clubhouse, but if he comes back with us and I’m still here and he’s still here, then obviously he’s a teammate and we welcome him and I hope we get things straight.”
Time for such reconciliation is a long ways off. Mejia won’t be around to help any more this season, not that he really was to begin with.
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