Red Sox take gamble on controversial former Mets, Phillies reliever

The Boston Red Sox have had bullpen issues all season, and they’re seemingly looking to fix that by signing a controversial reliever.

The Boston Red Sox have had persistent trouble with their bullpen all season, and they seem to be addressing that by signing former New York Mets reliever Jeurys Familia.

Familia will begin his journey with the Red Sox in their farm system at Triple-A.

Familia has played nearly all his career seasons with the Mets, but played briefly with the Oakland Athletics in 2018 and played with the Philadelphia Phillies this season.

The 32-year-old reliever has been inconsistent throughout his entire career, and he’s currently having a bad season.

However, the bullpen needs whatever help it can potentially get.

Red Sox: Jeurys Familia’s struggles and off-field behavior make for questionable deal

Familia isn’t likely to help the bullpen this season. He’s having his worst season yet and has produced an ERA of 6.09, a batting average against of .338, and a WHIP of 1.85. He’s never been consistently good and is unpredictable each season. However, he has had some really good seasons.

His best seasons were in 2015 and 2016 when he had 94 saves combined. In 2015, he had an extremely good season with an ERA of 1.85, a BAA of .207, and a WHIP of 1.00. He hasn’t been able to repeat that success, unfortunately.

What makes the signing look worse given his struggles on the mound is Familia’s off-field behavior. In 2016, he was arrested on domestic violence charges in New Jersey. Charges were dismissed but he still served a 15-game suspension after MLB investigated the incident.

For a season in Boston that has been full of bad moves, adding a reliever with a history connected to domestic violence and who hasn’t been good when on the field lately isn’t going to make being a Red Sox fan any easier to stomach.