The Red Sox have designated a reliever Jeurys Familia for assignment, the hurler himself told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive). The club has not officially announced the move. Boston’s 40-man roster tally drops to 39.
Familia spent around a month on Boston’s big league roster. He opened the season with the Phillies but was released by Philadelphia in early August after posting a 6.09 ERA across 34 innings. Within a few days, Familia signed a minor league deal with Boston and was quickly promoted back to the big leagues. He’s continued to struggle, though, allowing eight runs (seven earned) with seven walks and eight strikeouts over 10 appearances in a Boston uniform.
That included a tough outing during tonight’s matchup with the Yankees. Called upon in the tenth inning, Familia issued a leadoff walk to Aaron Hicks. After inducing a Marwin González double play and intentionally walking Aaron Judgehe unintentionally walked Giancarlo Stanton to load the bases. Familia then coughed up a three-run double to Gleyber Torres before recording the final out. He took the loss in a 7-6 Yankees win.
In the wake of that disappointing outing, the Red Sox elected to move on. The 32-year-old is headed for free agency at the end of the season regardless, and any faint hope the Sox had of making a playoff push a month ago has long since been dashed. Rather than continuing to devote a bullpen spot to a scuffling veteran, Boston will turn elsewhere. Cotillo reports that the Sox will go with 13 pitchers for the time being, with the recently-claimed Yu Chang taking the vacated active roster spot.
Familia will land on waivers in the next few days, but his struggles in both Philadelphia and Boston make it a virtual lock he’ll clear. With only a few weeks remaining on the schedule, he plans to turn his attention to the upcoming offseason and opportunities for 2023 (relayed by Jahmai Webster of NESN).
While Familia’s 2022 results have been subpar, he’s only a season removed from being an effective reliever. Familia posted a 3.94 ERA across 59 1/3 innings with the Mets in 2021, striking out 27.5% of batters faced that year. His strikeouts are well down this season, but he’s averaging north of 95 MPH on his fastball. At the very least, he figures to find minor league offers this winter as a result of his relatively recent success and extant arm strength.
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